Born to Survive
by An Italian Duck
Summary: A rebellion plan has failed, and 18 years on, Ivory Mason, the lone daughter of one of two living victors in District 5 has volunteered for the Hunger Games. Little does she know that this is all staged, and her death is all part of an 18 year long plan to get the rebellion started again. But it is all threatened when a young girl interferes. Set during the 65th Hunger games.
1. Chapter 1 - The Reapings

Chapter 1 – The Reapings.

Silence. All I hear is silence. The girl that's being dragged towards the stage by two very threatening looking peacekeepers turns her head round, frantically trying to get a look at me. When she does, she stares longingly towards me.

The split second our eyes meet feels like an eternity, before I notice that everyone in the square is staring at me, each and every camera trained either on my face, or the girl who's life I just saved. I look to the girl, and notice the peacekeepers have not moved.

'You heard me, I volunteer! Let the girl go.'

I say loudly, my voice booming confidently around the confines of the square.

The peacekeepers look at me, and back to the girl, before sharply pushing her out of the way. It's when the girl falls to the floor that I finally get a good look at her.

She's thin, her features almost fox like, with light amber hair that falls softly over her shoulders. She slowly stands up, feebly brushing the dirt from the scruffy garb that would easily be recognised as her finest clothes, and looks my way. I notice that she has strikingly green eyes, and they're fixed on me.

In the background, I hear a shrill shriek, followed by little footsteps behind me. Before I have the chance to turn round, I feel a small pair of arms wrap around the back of my legs. 'Thank you thank you for saving Quinny!' mutters the being that is clinging to my calves. I still haven't taken my eyes off of the girl, so I'm plenty surprised when she slowly, cautiously walks over, grimacing at the sight of the small girl attached to me.

'Finch.. come on.. please.. leave the lady alone..' The way she looks at the body behind me is so caring, so loving, so beautiful. The little girl walks over to her, and I notice that she's a spitting image of her mother.

In the few seconds since the girl was called to the stage, I had completely forgotten that I had just volunteered for the Hunger Games. Before I have a chance to move, the peacekeepers are already by my side, and I am gripped roughly from both sides. I try and struggle, I can walk on my own. But they take this as me trying to escape, and grip me tighter, practically dragging me towards the stage.

Typical peacekeepers, all brawn and no brain. I volunteered for the games, why would I suddenly change my mind? I've been training for this my whole life, why would I turn away now? Eventually I just give up and let them lead me towards the stage. They let me go just before I'm brought to the steps, and I flash the cameras my most winning smile, confidently walking up the small amount of stairs before taking my place on the stage, next to our district mentor Tyrin Alcovae.

He turns to face me, a few strands of shockingly green hair fall over his face, and he brushes it away. 'So, I take it that was your friend?' His voice is so grating, ladled with the patronising accent that belongs to all Capitolites. 'No.. we've never met. I just didn't want her to steal the opportunity of seeing such a beautiful place like the capitol! After all, this is my last year.' I squeal with a goofy, girly grin upon my face. Anything to please the people who will be sending money to save my life. 'So what's your name darling?'. 'Ivory. Ivory Mason.' I mutter, barely audible over the deathly silence that has filled the square. 'Well onto the boys then.'

Tyrin walks over and places his hand into a glass ball, filled to the brim with names. Of course it is, this is district 5, everyone has to take out tesserae, weather they like it or not. If they don't their families would starve. Before my thought even ends, he's pulling out a name. He slowly breaks the seal on the paper, obviously for dramatic effect, and reads out the name.

It sounds vaguely familiar.

'Joshua Riddley'

Joshua. I will remember that name when I am on my victory tour, I will make sure to say some comforting words to the crying boys family, who is now being practically dragged towards the stage. When he gets here, I shake hands with him, and then we receive a mandatory round of half-hearted applause, before being lead into the justice building by yet another set of peacekeepers.

* * *

I'm shoved into a room I've never seen before, and I step carefully onto the immaculate carpet. I've never seen a room so fine, the dark blue satin curtains, the light blue carpet, made by the finest thread. I walk over to the long plush sofa, perching on the edge of it, before I catch a shine in the corner of my eye. It's a mirror, a large, full length mirror. I've never seen such a mirror in my life. The biggest mirror I've ever seen is the very small, dusty and cracked mirror that sits above my bathroom sink. I slowly step over to the mirror, taking in my reflection clearly for the first time.

I look down at my tattered shoes, you can barely see the old grey fabric underneath the layer of dust that has collected from my little escapade in the square. I look up to see my dress, floaty and white, it's the finest garment I own, made of soft cotton. My straight, ebony black hair falls softly around my face, perfectly complimenting my ivory skin. When I look into my eyes, I notice that I am crying. Tears roll freely down my cheeks, and my brilliant blue eyes are framed with red, something I'm not use to. I will admit, I am beautiful, but that is said out of truth rather than arrogance.

I hear a small cough behind me, and swiftly turn round, frantically wiping away my tears before again setting sights on the young girl who was reaped today. I vaguely remember her name being Quinn. She smiles in my direction, and I smile back at her, before she slowly steps closer to me, looking into my eyes with eyes that resemble emeralds.

Suddenly, she pulls me into a hug, wrapping her arms tightly round me. I let my tears fall freely, returning the embrace. After a few minutes, I pull back, and look back into her eyes. 'Thank you..Thank you for saving my life..She...She would have died without me..' she sniffles, it's kind of cute. I take her hand and lead her onto the sofa, where I go to open my mouth, but she suddenly cuts in.

'Okay we only have 5 minutes so I'm going to say this once and only once. You are going to come back home and you're going to take Finch and you are going to give her a good life. I'm not giving up on you Ivory. I owe you my life. I'm going to scrape up every penny I can find and I'm going to sponsor you, and you're coming home.'

Sponsor me? This is a girl I've only just met 15 minutes ago, who I have spoken to all of 5 minutes, this girl is trusting me with her life, the little girls life.

'Quinn.. I can't let you do this.. I c-'

'No. Ivory. I owe you my life. Please, let me do this. Not for you, but for Finch. She's my sister. I know that if you win Finch will be fed.'

I sigh, before smiling at her.

'Fine..'

Before I know it, the door swings open and in comes the same peacekeeper that brought me in here. He gestures for Quinn to leave, and she stands up, hurriedly pulling at something around her neck. Just as the peacekeeper comes in to take her away, she yanks at the thing clasped round her neck and it comes loose, and she tosses it to me. 'Use this as your token, Ivory, plea-' The door slams behind her, and that is the last I hear of Quinn.

* * *

A few minutes pass, before a peacekeeper opens the door, and I stand up, walking confidently out of the door without a single word. As soon as I step out of the justice building, I am ushered into a car, where for the first time I get a good look at the boy who is now to be my district partner. He's small, thin, and he has obviously been crying a lot by the look of his puffy eyes.

He's staring at me, a look of either terror or disgust plastered upon his feeble face.

'How could you volunteer.. How could you throw your life away?' T

his causes me to laugh, which makes me instantly feel guilty.

'Throw my life away? Hah, darling this /is/ my life. I was born into the Hunger Games, and I shall die in them. Seems only fitting, right?'

the young boy nods, before leaning solemnly against the car window.

'Look..Joshua.. I know this must be hard for you, you're only 12, you're from district 5. We've only had 4 victors in the last 65 years. But trust me, I will avenge your death by bringing glory to our district. I will make sure your family gets extra food and your death won't be in vain. But I assure you the victor for the 65th Hunger Games will be from district 5, and it won't be you.'

I can feel everyone in the car staring at me. I forgot there were other people here. Our escort and two mentors are here, plus the man driving the car. The car comes to a halt, and the car door opens, causing a now sobbing Joshua to tumble out onto the floor. He picks himself up, still sobbing, and races towards the tribute train, not looking back.

I follow suit, and end up standing in front of the train with my two mentors on either side and Tyrin behind me, posingd with smiles and waves to the ever present cameras. Eventually, they open the door to the train and everyone steps inside. The first thing I hear is a loud gasp from Joshua as he races to the centre of the fine train. I can't say I'm surprised or even impressed by the décor of this train, but it looks beautiful non-the less.

* * *

You see, this isn't the first time I've been here, no. In fact I think this is actually the 19th time I have set foot on a train similar to this. You see, I was born in the Capitol, almost 19 years ago. My father, a mere escort at the time, didn't want me to grow up among the corruption which is the Capitol, so me and my two sisters were sent to the districts.

However, there was a few issues, and my and my sisters were separated. Bonnie and Twee were both sent to district 8, whereas little Ivory was sent to district 5. Luckily, my father had struck a deal with one of the few district 5 victors, in exchange for a break from some sort of appointments, as long as I was kept alive. So I was adopted by Elena Mason victor of the 39th Hunger Games. She's 41 now, so apparently she doesn't need to worry about these appointments, but Elena got so attached to me that she's kept me with her ever since.

Every year, Elena takes me with her to the Capitol, where she mentors for the Hunger Games. She is one of the 2 only living victors at the moment, so she has no other choice but to mentor with the 65 year old victor, Vincent. Vincent won the 17th Hunger Games, and is the 2nd oldest living victor to date, only exceeded by district 4's Mags, who is 66, and who also has to mentor this year. I have come very well acquainted with all the victors, and every year a party is held in the control room, as my birthday falls in the middle of the games each year. Of course, this automatically makes me a target to other tributes.. great.

* * *

Within a few minutes I have already shut myself inside the cabinet that I have claimed as my own, and perch on the edge of the bed. I've trained for this, I've trained my entire life for this moment, so why do I feel so scared. The door opens a creak, and as expected, in walks Elena. She looks at me with a look of pure grievance on her face, and sits down beside me.

'Why did I have to volunteer Elena.. I didn't want to. Why did you train me up my entire life and make me volunteer?'

It's all coming out now, all the questions I've been wanting to ask my entire life are coming out now, I suppose when you know you're going to die, you do things you normally wouldn't.

'It's for the best, Ives, trust me.. Everything is going to be okay, you were born to survive, and survive you shall.. Just not the way you think, you're just going to have to trust me. Ok?'

I sit in silence, before scooting over to her, and she pulls me up into her lap. She wraps her arms tightly round me, and I curl up into a ball, leaning against her and resting my head in her shoulder.

'Ives?'

She's looking down at me, that warm, motherly look on her face that she always wears before she tells me bad news...great.

'Yeah?'

'I love you, Ives. And you're going to make me proud, bring another victory to the Mason name. Okay?'

I don't know why she wants another.. Surely one is enough? Perhaps the woman I've grown up to call mom is a little bit status crazy. This is when I realise that I've become lost in thought, and I'm quickly brought back into reality when Tyrin barges through the door.

'The recaps are.. .. .. on.. now.'

Stupid Capitolites. The newest craze is to put unnecessary pauses in the middle of sentences, apparently it makes you sound 'sophisticated.' I carefully prize myself from Elena's comforting arms, and stand up, walking out to the living room to see that me and Elena are not the only ones missing. I take a seat next to Vincent, and am quickly joined by Elena and a still snivelling Joshua, before Tyrin realises that everybody is now here and turns on the large television just in time to see district ones reapings.

* * *

By the time the first name is called out, there is barely a fraction of a second before a loud and very Capitol accent calls out.

'I volunteer!'

I pay close attention as a very striking girl takes the stage. She has long blonde hair that is curled, and falls neatly round her shoulders and down her back, porcelain white skin and stunning blue eyes that make even my eyes look dull. She is very slim, and perfectly figured, and stands on the stage in a very beautiful sea green gown, which compliments a single bow of the same colour which holds back a few strands of hair.

The girl smiles flirtatiously at the camera, and states that her name is Eleanor Traveth. No matter how beautiful this girl is, I know not to underestimate her, because this girl will be deadly. The man who is called out strides confidently towards the stairs. He looks fierce, and has a terrifying look about him that makes me realise that winning will not be so easy, and by the way Elena tenses up beside me, I can tell she thinks the same.

When it moves over to district two's reaping, the escort barely has time to pick a name out of the reaping ball before a very loud voice screams out.

'I volunteer!'

The girl walks up to the stage, and I can tell already that she is nothing like the girl from district one. This girl is the most terrifying person I've ever witnessed in the Hunger Games. She is tall, very tall, and she looks incredibly strong. Despite this, she is also unfathomably gorgeous. She has long black hair that falls all the way down to her hips, and dark olive skin, set among them are two very menacing and very dark blue eyes, which tell the cameras that she is going to win, and I believe them.

The boy who steps up is almost her twin, he is tall, dark skinned, muscularly and horrific, his coal black eyes glaring into the camera. They both state their names as Stuart and Lucieina, and I know that district two will be my biggest threat. Next is district 3's reapings, and two names are called out. When the girl steps up, there is a loud cry coming from the 14 year old boys section. She stands on the stage, emotionless, and I see that this really is the true beauty of these reapings. The girl is wearing no fancy clothes, no make up, no fancy clothes or fancy hair, but she really was the most beautiful girl I've seen so far.

What is with all the beautiful girls in these games? I can tell there will be a huge competition for sponsors. The girl from 3 has bright green eyes, tanned skin, but hair so light blonde that it almost looks white, she's wearing a simple dark blue dress and slip on shoes, and she looks stunning. And she's only 14. When the next name is called, the girl on stage, I think her name was Deena, lets out a grief stricken cry, before burying her face in her palms and starting to sob.

This is when I notice that the boy, who wastes no time in running up to the stage, is the same boy who called out when her name was called. The boy has the same name as my district partner, but I can tell he isn't as pathetic. He wraps his arms around Deena, and she does the same with him, and it is the moment they embrace in a passionate kiss in front of all these people that I realise these people are lovers, and they will both have to die if I am to get home, for Elena, for Quinn, for Finch.

'Emilana Dawn'

I am snapped out of my thought by the mention of the female tribute for district 4, the final district of the careers. She steps up to the stage, and I take a moment to look at her. She has ashen brown hair, and a look so calm, so.. so loving, as she takes one last look at her home, knowing it **will** be her last. This girl seems to have accepted her fate, but somehow, I feel like she isn't going to go down without a fight, and that is why I choose not to underestimate this girl, because for all I know, she could be just as much of a threat then anyone else I've seen so far.

The male tribute for district 4 comes up, and wowee, this is one hell of a fine tribute. I take back what I said about district 3, because this is the most beautiful person I've ever seen in my life. This man looks like a god among peasants, a diamond in the rough, and I can tell that already, this man is racking up all the sponsors, because he is honestly the sexiest man I've ever seen in my life. Despite only being 14, this man who's name I remember as 'Finnick Odair', is tall, and very very muscularly. He has dirty blonde hair, which is spiked up ever so slightly. A strand has come loose and it dangles over his sea green eyes, which stare motionlessly into the camera. He has golden, tanned skin, which just makes him look completely supernatural. No amount of surgery or spray tanning could ever make any Capitol man look as good as Finnick Odair, because what he has is natural, which somehow makes him even more desirable.

By the time I'm finished daydreaming, I feel both Vincent and Elena tense beside me, so I turn my attention back to the screen just in time to see Quinns name called out, along with a lot of gasps as I volunteer. It shows me and Quinn catching each others gaze. Now I realise that we looked at each other for less than a second. When I was there, it seemed so much longer. It shows the peacekeepers throwing Quinn to the ground, and then dragging me up to the stage. It then shows Joshua being called out, and being pulled up to the stage snivelling and sniffling. Pathetic. We shake hands, and then it's on to district 6's reapings. The girl that is called up is called Lia, she looks oddly confident, and stands on the stage with pride, until the boys name is called out, and she suddenly turns pale. I then realise that the both have the same sir name. Samuel and Lia Ignatius are siblings, and they're both in the games together. This can't just be a coincidence.

The next two reapings pass by, and I vaguely take note of the tributes, passing them off as bloodbath victims. Then it gets to district 9's reapings. The girl that steps up is clearly 12, but she looks so much younger. She has light green hair, and looks so pale and so underfed. She is unhealthily skinny and has a look of pure horror on her face as she ridgedly shakes her district partners hand. I feel so sorry for this girl, that I decide that I am not going to kill her. Mintila Vervi will be on somebody else's conscience. District 10 and 11's reapings pass by, until it gets to district 12. District 12 are usually the first to die, but by the look in this girls eyes, I can tell that this girl is smarter than her district gives her credit for. This girl looks mysterious, she looks sneaky, and its right there, on this very sofa that I choose my first ally. I am going into the arena with the 14 year old girl from district 12. I am going into the arena with Georgia Butcher.

* * *

Soon enough Georgia shakes hands with her partner, another bloodbath, and the Panem anthem begins to play. I find myself humming along. I know people are turning their noses up at me but, this is a very catchy tune! After a few minutes of awkward silence, Tyrin walks in.

'Come come come everyone...Dinner...is served!'

I roll my eyes at his accent, and walk over to the dining cart, sitting down at my usual place and starting to feebly pick at some lamb stew.

'Ives, eat up. You're going to need all the energy you can get to endure that prep team, we arrive first thing in the morning.'

I look over to Elena, to see Joshua beside her shovelling down food like he's never seen the stuff before. Tyrin tuts loudly, and smacks Joshua's hand with one of his own.

'Oh what terrible manners! You disgusting district pigs! Why can't you be civilised like poor Ivory here? Think of her! She has to put up with you for the next few days.'

Joshua suddenly drops the piece of bread he was holding, turning to face Tyrin.

'District pigs? Think of Ivory? Think of me! We both know that I'm going to be sent to my death in less than a week, and don't say 'oh you have just as much a chance as everyone else' because I know you're all putting your bets on Ivory!'

He turns to Elena.

'Don't pretend like you haven't been training her up for this. She's always had enough to eat, always had enough to eat, never had to take out tesserae no. She's been living the high life in victors village when we all sit there and starve! You've been training her up for this moment, and what have I got? Nothing. A starving family. 3 brothers that are all going to die now because I won't be there to feed them!'

He turns back to Tyrin.

'And as for 'district pigs' are we really the pigs? The Capitol is sending 23 children to die, 23 children who have family, who could have had lives, they could make something out of themselves, but no, you're sending us to die just so you can have a little bit of television entertainment. Who do you think you are telling me I have bad manners? Because I think forcing 23 children out of there homes, taking their lives away, rounding them into an arena and slaughtering them all, where the 24th child gets to live a life of luxury and guilt, plagued with nightmares of the people he was forced to murder to get home to his family, is **a little bit** rude!'

* * *

Everything has gone completely silent, even Tyrin, who never shuts up is silent, we are all gawking at Joshua in amazement. How can a 12 year old come out with that? How can he dare to start screaming a string of profanities about the Capitol in a most likely camera rigged room on a Capitol made train? He must have noticed that every pair of eyes in the room is fixated on him, because he gets up, pushing his chair onto the floor, and runs into his compartment, slamming the door shut behind him. Vincent quickly gets up and follows, his face plastered with concern.

A blonde haired avox runs into the room, hurriedly picking up the chair and tucking it back under the table, before rushing back out the room, just in time to run into a very disorientated Vincent, a pink hand mark across his face. She looks bewildered, and quickly picks herself off the floor and practically runs out. Vincent sits back down at the table, and me and Elena both burst out laughing.

'I have no idea how you won your games Vincent but you must have been against some pretty weak people if you can be beaten up by a 12 year old boy.'

I chortle, leaning against Elena.

'Yeah Vince, I thought you were some steely man!'

Everyone is laughing now, except for Tyrin. He sits in his chair, still staring emotionlessly into the space where Joshua once stood. I take this as my queue to move, and go back to my compartment, flopping onto the soft bed, and trying to forget about the horrors of which await me tomorrow.

* * *

**The 2nd chapter should be up tomorrow.. Please review so I know where to go with this story, and I'll gladly take suggestions or PM's!:D **


	2. Chapter 2 - The Parade

**Okay so here's the 2nd chapter, as you can probably see.. by the fact it says chapter 2. I don't intend this to be a long story and it won't have more than 100,000 words. I think I'm going to limit myself to 25 chapters, but that will probably be thrown out the window ^-^ For the people that were wondering, yes, Finch is foxface. Well done.**

* * *

Chapter 2 – The Parade

'Wake up! Wake up! It's a …..big big big day Ivory!'

I am awakened by the very shrill voice of Tyrin, and I regret not locking my door last night. I slept solidly through the night, but now I'm starting to regret that, because I'm going to need to learn how to sleep light for the arena. Tyrin stands impatiently in the doorway, so I sigh and pull myself out of bed, making my way to the bathroom. I step in the shower, slamming my hand onto the complicated pad of buttons that presents its self to me, and I eventually end up stepping out the shower smelling of lavenders and some flower I can't quite recognise. I step forward and a small box drops around my head, blowing my hair dry straight away, and untangling it of all knots.

I let my hair hand loosely over my shoulders, and go back to my room having dried off. I walk over to the wardrobe and fiddle around a bit until I manage to find something that fits my taste. A dark blue pair of high waisted, skin tight jeans, a small white and fitting crop top with the Panem symbol printed on the front and a pair of yellow, strapping stiletto heels are delivered to my room, and I put them on. My logic is that if I put on too much of an effort, my prep team will have a hard time trying to make me over, and if I don't make enough effort, I won't put on a good enough show for the thousands of Capitolites that will be awaiting my presence at the train station.

I exit my apartment to see that nobody is in the living room, so I walk into the dining cart. Everybody is sat silently eating breakfast, and nobody is dressed yet.

'You're late for dinner Ivory! You need to set an example to that district partner of yours!'

moans Tyrin again, jeesh what is with that man. I look over to Joshua, who is sat staring down into a bowl of cereal. I walk over and take a seat next to him, before reaching over and taking a piece of bread from the basket, smearing butter all over its still warm insides. I take a bite and moan in sudden delight. I completely forgot how this stuff tastes.. It's so much better than the brownish bread made from tesserae rations that we've been having to buy for the last few months, as the baker went out of business. Joshua stares longingly at the bread in my hands, clearly to scared to ask for some himself, so I hold my bread out to him. He takes it from my hand feebly, and takes a small bite out of its warm fluffiness, instantly grinning with delight.

'Mm this stuff is delicious.'

he groans. I smile and take another piece for myself.

'It's much better than the tesserae bread.'

we both say at the exact same time. I look at him, and he looks at me, and we both burst into a fit of giggles, which earns us a glare from Tyrin. This causes us to laugh more, and by the time we've finally calmed down it's time for us both to stand at the window of the train and wave to people, so, we do just that.

* * *

As soon as I peer out the window, I'm taken aback by a sea of greens and blue's and yellows. It's clear that district 4 has the majority of sponsors this year...great. With a big, fake smile on my face, I get ready for the train doors to open. Just as I expected, they open, and I'm greeted by the constant clicking of cameras. I strike my best poses for them, and then Elena comes out and pose with me. For 41 years old, Elena doesn't look half bad. The cameras are loving the mother/daughter pictures, so when Vincent and Joshua step out, it's obvious why they don't give them any attention.

After what feels like forever, I finally relax as we step inside the remake centre. The muscles in my cheeks ache from me smiling too much, and my legs are pretty much dead. I fall back onto the sofa, but have no more than a few seconds rest before Elena and Vincent sit down next to me, Joshua tailing along behind them. As soon as Joshua sits down, they look at us both sternly.

'Ok, I'm not going to lie to you. What you're about to experience will make the games sound like heaven. But don't object and do as you're told, or you'll regret it, trust me. Also, don't say anything mean to your prep team.'

Me and Joshua exchange a nervous glance, before turning back to our mentors and nodding. A few minutes of silence pass, before Vincent and Elena stand up.

'They're on their way... good luck.'

She says with a pitiful tone.

The pair quickly shuffle out the room, and are soon replaced by two peacekeepers, who take one of us each, and walk us off seperate ways down the corridor. The peacekeeper shoves me into a large room, and tells me to get changed into the robe that is on the hard metal table that stands in the middle of the room. I do as he says, and soon I am standing infront of a full length mirror in a very revealing robe, that doesn't leave much to the imagination. I barely have any time to think before 3 overly excited women race into the room, pushing me onto the table and stripping me of my robe.

'Oh my isn't she beautiful!'

'Oh she's magnificant!'

'She's a little hairy though..'

'Maybe we can enlarge those'

one says as she gently pokes one of my breasts. It takes everything I have not to slap her hand away, and I just lay there, wincing at every chance I get as they remove all the hair from my body, and bath me in some sort of creepy liquid that peels away about 3 layers of my skin, until I'm stood there as bare as the day I was born. They hand me back my robe, and I gratefully slip it back on, sitting in the chair they pull out for me.

'We better go and get Jasten.'

The 3 women hurry off, but I can hear their excited chatter all the way down the hall until it finally quietens down to just a whisper.

* * *

I hear him before I see him, I hear the faint tapping of high heeled shoes from down the hallway, gradually getting louder until the door swings open, and in comes a very flamboyant man who looks like he belongs in an old fashioned disco club. He has a head of large, afro like hair, tied round the middle with some sort of polka dot bandana, and some big, luminescent shades, which cover most of his face. He wears bright yellow flared trousers, and a matching pair of platform shoes, and an orange tye-dye top.

If this man is my stylist, then I am one and truly screwed. The man introduces himself as Jasten, and then asks me to stand up, taking off my robe. Do I ever get any privacy? He makes me spin around, and then shoves my robe at me again. Sooner or later the 3 women rush back into the room, and literally drag me onto the chair. They instantly start attacking my face with foundation, eye liner, mascara, eye shadow, blusher, you name it and it's on my face today. They say I'm not aloud to look until I'm in my dress, which worries me slightly. I can feel them doing something to me hair but I'm not entirely sure what.

After what feels like hours, I hear Jasten come back in the room and upzip something. This gets a few gasps and a round of appreciative applause from my prep team, who I've now come to know as Castella Anastasia and Astraea. I am told to stand up, and feel my robe being taken from me again.  
'Put your arms out.'

I put my arms out, feeling my fingertips brush against the hair of one of my prep team. I notice that Jasten is pulling a piece of fabric around my torso, and I feel it brush against one of my legs. Suddenly, I'm unable to breath, as somebody tightens the corset on my dress, tying it up as tightly as they possibly can. Still, I am yet to complain. Astraea takes my hand, and leads me over to stand infront of a mirror, or so she says, and tells me to open my eyes, I am lost for words. Who I see infront of me is not Ivory Mason, the person I see in front of me is beautiful, picturesque, stunning, captivating, the person I see in front of me is a victor.

My hair is curled loosely, and falls over my right shoulder, and the front pieces of my hair have been braided tightly and are pulled back around my head to keep my hair in place. My face looks like the epitome of beauty. I have large, bright blue eyes, porcelain skin and thick, black eye lashes. I have smokey grey eyeshadow, which nicely compliments my eyes, and full red lips that stand out on my face. My eyebrows are perfectly shaped, and my skin is immaculate. My now jet black hair makes my skin look deathly white, it makes me look elegant, delicate.

The dress that Jasten has put me in.. Oh the dress.. I'm wearing a floor length black gown, made entirely of silk. The dress cuts off just above my thigh, and slopes all the way down my right leg, leaving my left leg exposed. The dress fits my figure perfectly, and has a white ribbon that ties round the waist. The dress has one sleeve that goes all the way down to my wrist, and leaves my right arm bare, apart from a single bracelet, encrusted with little transparent gems.

Jasten goes to the other side of the room, and turns the lights off. We are stood in complete darkness when I feel something being put on my head, and then suddenly the room is illuminated. Not from the light, but from my dress. On my dress, is thousands of tiny little lights, that glisten when I move. The item Jasten put on my head, is a small tiara of the same effect, and my bracelet also has the effect. Me and my prep team gasp, before the lights are turned back on and my dress turned off. My prep team burst into a fit of delighted squeals, and I sigh, before being lead out to the room of the remake centre.

* * *

The first thing I notice is how adorable Joshua looks in his outfit. It is a suit which is entirely black, but I'm quite sure it has the same add-ons as my dress does. Elena and Vincent return shortly after, and take a look at us, beaming.

'You look so stunning darling, I'm so proud of you!'  
Elena runs over to me and wraps her arms round me, to which I quickly step back before she kisses me.  
'Woah woah woah mind the masterpiece!'

Jasten interrupts, and I smile sweetly at him. The doors open and in come two peacekeepers, who usher us all out of the building. And into a big, grey spacious room, with 12 chariots in the middle, going from one end to the other. We make our way over to the chariot which says "5" on it, and take a look around.

I instantly realise that not a lot of the tributes are here yet. There's districts 1-4, us, district 6, the girl from 9 and both from 12. The second thing I notice is that district four are practically naked. However good Emilana looks, I'm almost certain that this look was meant for Finnick, because he's wearing nothing but a golden fish net and a golden crown. And he looks god-like. Distrist 2 are looking as terrifying as expected. All dressed in red and black, they look like true warriors, they both have war paint printed onto them. The girl looks so powerful and so beautiful that it's hard to believe that she's real. That is until I see district 1.

The girl is wearing a long dress, made entirely of what seem to be diamonds. She has her hair flowing n loosely round her shoulders, but her back is turned to me so I can't quite see. District 3 are dressed up in some sort of strange wires, it's heard to believe that this girl so plastered in make-up and bad costumes looked so beautiful at her reaping, I notice that her and her partner are holding hands.

My eyes sweep the room one more time, and I see that Georgia is having an argument with her mentor. I can see from here that he's obviously drunk. They seem to be going at each others throats until the point the district escort has to step in between the two, to the annoyance of the girl. The boy from their district is stood on the chariot already, dressed as the usual coal miner. The outfit looks so big on him that I can tell they haven't bothered to change the clothes from last year. He is clinging onto the side of the chariot like his life depends on it, and just proves to me that he will die in the bloodbath.

'Oh what are you going to do, drunkie? Throw a bottle at me? Oh I'm /so/ scared.'

That's weird.. I can hear that girl a lot more clearly than I could from the district 5 station. Oh.. I appear to have subconsciously wandered over to the district 12 station. Georgia and her mentor start laughing, until she catches my eye.

'..What are you staring at?'

' Excuse me?'

'I said.. what are you staring at?'

Wow, for a 14 year old from district 12, this girl has some serious balls. After a while of silence, the girl and her mentor just dismiss me and continue with there argument, which appears to be little more than banter between two friends. Crap. If I had any chance of being in an alliance with her now.. I'm not sure she wants me. I absently saunter over to my station, feeling as deflated as ever. Great. I always mess things up.

Soon enough, I feel Elena rest a hand on my arm, enthusiastically dragging me over to the chariot. In the time it's taken me to walk round the room, every single one of the tributes has arrived, and most have taken their places on the chariots. I can't help but smirk as I catch sight of district 7's traditional tree costumes. Our chariot is a pale blue colour, with two matching horses that are clearly in the Capitol. I mean.. Blue horses? Really? I take my place next to Joshua, and he smiles at me. I see that underneath the adorable child they've made him look like, he's terrified, and I can't say I feel any different. Swallowing down the lump in my throat, I get ready to face the crowd.

Just as I thought, the second I regain my composure the big grey doors swing open, and the room is hit by an impenetrable wall of screaming, clapping and cheering as the district 1 chariot goes out into the open. Too soon, our chariot suddenly jolts into motion, causing Joshua to tumble over and into me. We are about a quarter of the way round the circuit when he finally manages to scramble to his feet, and I see that every camera has been watching his little mishap; much to the annoyance of the other tributes. Jasten must see this as only an opportunity, as both our garments suddenly come to life with light. I can hear many gasps coming from the easily impressed Capitolites, and then they start throwing some of their roses and love towards district 5. Not that we are any competition for the attention that district 1 are getting.

When we finally reach the end of the circle, we all gather in neat rows, by district order. The lights on my dress patter out, and I see why. Every camera is now fixed on the man that is stood on the balcony above us. This is President Snow, and he looks even more horrific in person. Even from here, I can feel my district partner tense as the presidents snake like eyes bore into him for a split second, and I start to wonder if we weren't the only ones who heard Joshua's little lecture to Tyrin. I try not to listen to the words the president is saying, as I've heard the same thing every year of my life. Eventually he finishes, wishes us all a happy hunger games and leaves, and our chariots kick up again, causing me to instinctively reach out to grab Joshua's forearm. We don't want him embarrassing our district any more than he already has, do we?

* * *

We do one more lap of the city circle, before going back inside the giant grey room. The second I step off the chariot I am greeted by an overexcited Elena.

'Oh my, darling you did wonderful! The sponsors are just going to eat you up aren't they?'

'Well I should hope not, that sounds rather painful.' I retort, receiving a warning frown from Elena, which is shortly changed to a full on scowl when Tyrin runs into the room, grabbing both me and Joshua by our forearms and dragging us away from the room.

'Come come darlings, lets go back to the room, get all comfy and then watch the recaps of the tribute parade. Then we can have dinner and...go..to sleep.' Wow. This man really has everything planned in advance. I turn to Elena to protest, but Joshua beats me too it.

'Why do we have to go to bed so early?' He whines, despite how overly tired he looks. This just gains him a shake of the head from Vincent, who decides to speak up for the first time since his little encounter with Joshua.

'Because you need to sleep early. If you look tired in training you won't be able to concentrate, and the other tributes will see you as a target.'

Joshua cuts in before he has time to finish 'Why do I have to train? What's the point of training me up when I'm so obviously going to die? What will knowing the names of a few plants help me when a careers sword is going through my heart?'

This causes everyone to fall silent again, as we solemnly file into the lift, pressing the button for the district 5 quarters. When the lift comes to a halt, I race out, determined to claim the best room to myself. I run through the door of the room that is closest to the dining cart, and shut the door behind me, locking it. Almost instantly I strip myself of my dress, undoing the intricate braids that my prep team have so willingly tied my hair into. Too tired to scrub all my make-up off, I take all my clothes off, stepping into the large shower and slamming a bunch of random buttons. This time I come out smelling of apricots and vanilla. Strange combination if you think about it.. I fiddle with the wardrobe a bit until it comes up with some wearable night clothes, and flop on to the bed.

By the time I make it to the sofa, the recaps are almost finished. I can see that Joshua has fallen asleep next to Elena, and nobody is really paying attention to the recaps. They are all too busy talking among themselves I guess. I walk straight past everyone, and pick up a warm bread roll from the table, turning right around and walking back to my room. I close the door quietly, so nobody notices that I'm not there, and slide myself in between the sheets of the giant, four poster double bed. I quickly finish my bread roll, and rest my head against the velvet soft pillow, sinking right down into it. No sooner have I closed my eyes, I find myself drifting into a long, uninterrupted sleep. Damn, I really need to work on that.

* * *

Thump. Thump. Thump. 'Wake up wake up wake up!' Thump. Thump. Thump.

From down the hallway, I can hear Tyrin banging on somebodies door, but I'm just thankful that is isn't me.

'Shut the hell up Tyrin!' Vincent. He's banging on Vincent's door. I feel so sorry for that man. Today, when we go to training, Elena and Vincent have to follow Tyrin to some sponsor meetings, to try and keep me and Joshua alive. The thought is kind of daunting.. We aren't even in the arena, yet Elena and Vincent are already fighting to stop us from dying. I hear a very quiet knock on my door, and a small whimper.

'Come in..' I whisper, sitting up in my bed and smoothing down my hair. The door creaks open, and in steps a very tired looking Joshua. He patters over to my bed, and perches on the edge of it, looking down at the floor.

'Can I help you..?' I say, slightly confused to why this child is sat on the edge of my bed.

'I'm scared..' he sounds very defeated, It's kind of.. It's kind of worrying.

'Why?'

'I don't want to go to training.. The others will laugh at me.. I know I'm a bloodbath, I can't do anything and the careers are going to notice how useless I am and they're going to kill me!' He's rambling now, overcome by fear.

'Shh shh, you're not suppose to be in here, be quiet!' I hiss at him, and he instantly shuts up. I look at the alarm clock that's by the side of the bed, and notice that it's only 4:56am. We still have about 3 hours before we have to go to breakfast, so I gesture to Joshua to come over.

'Come here.. I take it you couldn't sleep?'

'No.. I had nightmares, and then Tyrin started banging on my door and I got scared. I think he had the wrong room..' He is whispering so quietly that I can barely hear him, so I just hold my arms out to him. After a few minutes of hesitation, Joshua crawls over and gets into bed beside me, settling into my arms. I don't know why I allow this child to sleep in my bed, but I suppose it's the fact his death is imminent. I feel obliged to give this boy a good few days before he is sent off to die.. I guess it's just the sisterly instinct that has been hidden away all these years since Bonnie and Twee were taken away from me, I finally have someone to use it on. After about 15 minutes, I notice Joshua's breath become slower as he falls to sleep, but I realise this boy has taught himself to do something I could never do. He seems to be a very light sleeper, so I guess it's a trait that comes with living in the slums of district 5, whereas I've always had a comfortable bed to sleep in. Whatever it is, I envy this child, and I also regret sitting up, because I know as soon as I stand up I will wake him so, I close my eyes and fall to sleep sitting up.

* * *

When I wake up, for the first time since I got to the Capitol it was not by Tyrin but from the alarm clock that rings noisily around my room. I press a few of the complicated buttons on the clock, and notice that there is a similar sound coming from Joshua's room. Joshua. I look around and see that some time last night Joshua has left my room and gone back to his own room. Either he is more sneaky than I give him credit for or I'm just a very heavy sleeper. Somehow I strongly doubt the former. I see that there is some folded up clothes at the end of my bed, ugh. I forgot today was the first day of training. I unwillingly slide out of the silky soft bed, and stand up, heading straight for the bathroom. I take a look in the mirror, I never was a morning person. My hair is all frizzy and awkward. It's 7am, so I have an hour until breakfast. I decide that this will be enough time to take a quick shower, so I do just that. This time I come out smelling of vanilla and plums, it smells really nice. I dry myself, and scrape my sleek black hair into a tight ponytail, before walking over to my bed and peeling off my night clothes. I have been provided with a pair of bright red, skin tight leather trousers, and a matching pair of boots that fit my calf perfectly, along with a stunningly black shirt which extenuates every curve of my top half.

I step out the door of my room, only to be instantly noticed by my prep team and shoved back inside, being angrily attacked by a million hands, applying make-up in every visible part of my body. When they're finally finished, I take a quick look at myself in the bathroom mirror. My skin looks immaculately smooth, and my face has just been done up so it looks flawless, but natural. I can live with that. I dismiss my prep team and step out of my room again, shutting the door softly behind me and heading over to the dining room. I notice the only person there is Tyrin, who quickly explains to me that Elena and Vincent are at their sponsor meeting still.

I take a seat at the table, taking a bowl from the neat stack that's closest to me and pouring myself some porridge, squeezing some thick, golden liquid into it, as Tyrin tells me it's 'Absolutely positively mouth watering!' and I also take another bread roll. An avox girl wanders over, and pours me a nice warm mug of coffee. I smile thankfully at her, and she nods her head, walking back to where she was standing. I sit and eat my food, making some small conversation about the newest Capitol styles with Tyrin, when a very lost looking Joshua stumbles into the room.

'Sorry.. I couldn't find the dining room. I had to ask this lady to show me where it was.' He gestures to the avox that is slowly backing away from him, before walking over to sit next to Tyrin, grabbing a bread roll and sinking his teeth into it.

'So.. I was thinking. Tonight, can we sit down and watch some recaps of other games? I want to know some possible arenas, and some strategies on how to survive, maybe pick up some fighting techniques.' he turns to Tyrin.

'It is possible, right?'

'Well.. I don't see how it's …...against... the rules so.. Sure. Just don't tell anybody I had anything to do with this.' Tyrin responds, shaking his head.

'Well we have to go to training in a few minutes anyway.. Any idea of who you want to ally with, Joshua?' I say, I'm not really interested in what he does in the arena but I suppose it's conversation.

'Not really.. I don't think I'll make any allies. But at least I have you right? I...I do have you..right?'

'Yeah.. Of course.. I wouldn't leave you..' I say uncertainly. Great. I don't want Joshua to follow me round in the arena, he's nothing but a burden, yet I don't have the heart to tell the kid so much. We both know he's going to die in the bloodbath so.. What's the harm in pretending? We do it every year don't we? Pretend we're celebrating the games, pretend we're proud of our tributes for going as far as the bloodbath, pretend we want to celebrate the victory of the man or woman who killed two of our own once a year. This is no different, we can just pretend that he isn't going to die. It won't do any harm to anyone.

* * *

**Don't forget to review! And be sure to give plenty of constructive criticism, I mean, after all it's my first fanfiction, it's bound to be rubbish! :D I'll try update again by tomorrow but no promises. The only reason why I updated so quickly today is because I already had half of this chapter written when I posted chapter 1. (:**


	3. Chapter 3 - Training

**Heh, I don't know why this is in a weird colour but oh well! I originally decided to do all the training in one chapter but.. By the end of the first training day I realised that I'd subconsciously written about 4000 words so.. I decided to split it in to 2 or three parts :D **

**Thanks to Tara and Ella for reviewing, and giving me inspiration for some of the characters3**

* * *

Chapter 3 – Training

It's around 9:30am when we arrive at the training centre. I stand outside the doors alone, the rain falling softly upon my face. It may be 30 minutes early, but we are the last ones here, which leaves 30 minutes for socialising. Which is why I'm stood outside right now, because I don't want to mix with the people who are going to have to die for me to get home, no, I just want to train. So I take this opportunity to sit and think. My thoughts are instantly drawn to the image of Quinn, starving and alone, having to fend for her little sister. I've never been that much of a good person, but now I understand why Quinn was reaped this year. Because from the face that haunts my every memory, I can tell that girl would have been taking out tesserae every month from the moment she turned 12, so will Finch. Finch. She will probably be in the games too, because from what I've seen over the years, reapings aren't just 'purely by coincidence' no, reapings are set to give the Capitol a good show. And by now, every Capitolite will have seen me saving Quinn from being reaped. Imagine in say 10, 11, 12 years time, the younger sister of the girl I saved is reaped ? That will surely cause a stir.

I don't know how long I've been standing out here, but I soon hear footsteps fast approaching me. I turn around slowly, to see a rather large man standing behind me, holding an umbrella.

'Here, you look cold. Either get inside or take it.' He says, holding out his umbrella to me. I take it gratefully, finally getting a good look at the generous man. He has a crop of bright yellow hair, and ivory coloured skin, but I can see roots of ebony black underneath his dyed hair. The man has bright blue eyes, and is rather large around the stomach area. He has a big, hearty grin on his face, and I begin to wonder why somebody as pleasant looking as this man is doing in the Capitol, and above that, the training centre. He outstretches his hand which now drips with water.

'Allow me to introduce myself. I am Plutarch. Plutarch Heavensbee, and this is my first year of being a game maker. It is a pleasure to meet you.' I take his hand, shaking it, before he smiles at me again.

'Ivory, sir.' I say quietly, trying to seem well mannered. The man crouches down to my level, and gently cups the side of my face in his palm, stroking his thumb across my cheek, but gentle enough not to smudge my make-up.

'I know who you are.. Miss Mason..I have been waiting for you.' And with that, he turns, walking straight through the door of the training centre. This catches me completely off guard, so I turn around, as if to run after him.

'Mr. Heavensbee wait!' But it is too late, he has disappeared. I rush through the doors of the training centre, to see the large clock on the door that displays the time. I notice it says 9:56am. Oh good, I'm 4 minutes early. I step into the room where all the other tributes are, and wait, my eyes staring motionlessly at the podium where the training instructor will be stood in less than 5 minutes.

Soon enough, a tall, fair skinned and stern looking women stands up on the podium.

'Hello and welcome to the first day of training! I am your head trainer, and I am here to go through a few rules today while I supervise you. Rule number one! You are not to pick fights with other tributes, save it for the arena. Rule number two! If you wish to practise sparring, please spar with one of our willing peacekeepers that will be posted all over the room, If a single fight is spotted, sparring or not, you will both be taken out of the training centre for the day. The next one is more advice than rules. It is strongly recommended that you visit not only the combat stations but the survival stations. Most of you will die from natural causes, and not by the hands of another tribute. Now with that said, let the training begin!'

The second the bell rings, I see district 2 running for the archery station. Curious to see if they're as dangerous as they look, I sully on over and pick up a bow. Not really concentrating on my own, I turn to watch the girl, who's name I remember being Lucie, load a quiver of arrows. She presses a button, and a bunch of plastic birds fly out of a hole somewhere. Before I have time to blink, every single bird is laying on the floor with an arrow sticking out of their heads. I was right about Lucie, she really is terrifying.

I watch as she does this again, before turning my attention to her counterpart. He is mimicking her moves, but not quite as accurately, missing very few of the birds. I really do mean what I say, district 2 are the most dangerous tributes I've seen so far. They can easily give Enobaria a run for her money. I look around the room, and see the girl from district 1 sparing with one of the trainers. My eyes scan the room and I see everybody is wearing the same outfit. Well so much for making an impression. I turn my attention back to district 1, who has managed to pin her trainer to the floor in the time it has taken me to make this realisation.

The male from district one walks over to the girl, and helps her up off her trainer, and they both go together towards the spear throwing station. I carefully watch him picking up a spear, aiming it, and throwing it with such deadly precision. Well.. well crap. I decide to stop wasting time gawking, and make my way over to the fire making station, taking my place in between the girl from district 7, and a very confused looking Joshua. He seems to be struggling a lot, trying to start a fire using a box of matches. I sigh, leaning over him and snatching the matches from his hand.

'You aren't going to start it like that, you need to get some dry material. You cant just set a lot on fire and take your chances on if it will work or not.' I lean over him and grab some dry leaves, placing them in a pile, then getting a few more sticks and twigs, arranging them into a neat pile. I hand the matches back to Joshua, who then bites his tongue in concentration and starts again. After about 3 minutes of fiddling with a match, he finally manages to set it alight, clapping happily at the mess he just made. I turn to face him.

'Survival skills today, combat skills tomorrow?'

'Yeah, that sounds like a plan' He says quietly, before standing up and walking over to the edible plants station. I notice that a few yards to the right of the station, sat on a small raised platform is Georgia. She is holding a pen and a piece of paper in her hand, and keeps looking up and down from the room full of tributes to her paper, jotting something down every now and then. I decide not to pay attention to it, and sit down next to Joshua.

'Woah there's way too much stuff here to remember.. Seriously what the hell?' I look in the direction he's pointing, and I see an absolutely humongous board filled with what must be thousands of different plants and fruits.

'And we're suppose to know.. all of these?'

'Apparently so.'

* * *

Me and Joshua spend the rest of the morning at the edible plants section, trying to remember as many things as we possibly can. Of course, being district 5, there isn't much use for knowing the names and uses of plants as we work in factories. It feels way too soon when the bell rings for lunch, but I'm grateful for it at least. One more plant and I'll go insane. I find myself somewhere near the back of the queue for lunch, as I'm not particularly hungry. The careers take the large, round table in the middle of the room, occupying it entirely as they eat together. Despite this being the first day they've had to interact with each other, they are talking like old friends. Laughing hysterically, cracking jokes, smiling, it's all a bit strange to think that in a week or so their alliance will falter and they will all be trying to kill each other. By the time I get my food, I notice that every table has at least one person on it.. Great. Well I suppose if I'm going to be forced to socialise I may as well start discussing allies.

So, with that thought in mind, I walk right over to District 12 and sit down across the table from her, not saying a word. She slowly looks up from her food, and jumps, clearly not expecting me to be here.

* * *

'Can I help you..?'

'I uh.. Every table was taken, so I thought I'd come and sit with you..'

'Why me?' she asks. Well, here goes nothing.

'When I was watching the reapings I decided I wanted you as an ally. So, I have to start somewhere.'

'...Oh.' Is all she replies with. She reaches into her pocket and takes out a piece of paper, and hands it to me.

'What's this?' I ask.

'Well if we're going to be allies I might as well share my information with you.' good point. I pick up the paper and start reading it. It has every tributes names on it and all their different skills and weaknesses so far on it. I quickly scan across district one.

_Name: Eleanor Traveth_

_Age: 17_

_Strengths: Can easily take someone down, is good with a sword._

_Weaknesses: Completely useless with a spear, clearly incompetent with a bow and knows nothing about survival. _

Wow. There is one of these for pretty much every tribute. I take a look at myself and I notice I only have one word under strength. _'Resourceful' _And nothing at all under weaknesses. Beside the names of the tributes are little arrows pointing too which alliance they are in. I notice that most people so far are alone or with their district partners, apart from the traditional career alliance.

'So.. Did you work this all out by just sitting there?'

She smiles slyly, holding her hand out for her paper.

'Either that..' I hand her the paper and she quickly scribbles something on it and hands it back to me. '..Or I got bored and wrote down everyone's names with random arrows.'

I smirk at her, I look down at what she's just written, and see she's drawn an arrow from my name, and one from hers. They meet up in the middle and join at a word, saying '_Outlying Alliance'_

'What you mean by outlying alliance? It's just us two..'

'Well..' There's that sly smile again. '..I was thinking.. Why stop at two?'

'How many?'

'I say we look around, we see which are the most resourceful tributes, and see which are the best fighters, and we form a big alliance. We don't tell other tributes because they'll want in on the alliance. There's a roof above my districts living quarters, It's nice, and a good place to meet. My mentor says there's no audio cameras up there either. So we can say what we want and nobody will be able to hear us, only see us.'

I stay quiet through the whole of her speech, taking it in. This girl is a hell of a lot smarter than I thought she'd be. I'm kind of glad to have her as an ally.

'So.. What do you think?' Oh yea, I forgot I had to respond.

'I think it's a great idea, we should get going as soon as lunch finishes.'

'You take the odd districts, I'll take the even ones?'

'Sure.' That leaves me with 3, 7, 9 and 11. Easy.

'Speaking of lunch, is that all you're eating?' I look down at the bread roll that she's pointing at, and pick it up.

'Why not? They're good' I sink my teeth into it, it's gone cold by now but it's still mouthwatering. Just as soon as I finish my roll, Joshua comes up behind me.

'Ivory.. Where are we going to go after lunch?'

'I think I'll have a look round at the other tributes, why don't you go to the knot tying station and see if you can't rustle up a few snares? It will be useless if we both go to all the same stations.' I know that Georgia won't let Joshua into our alliance. He's completely useless, so I need to distract him.

* * *

He opens his mouth to respond, but the bell rings, signalling the end of lunch. I smile at Georgia, and we both get up, heading our separate ways. The first people on my list are district 3. Damn, I forgot to ask Georgia for some paper.. Guess I'll have to rely on my memory. I wait for Joshua to settle down at the knot tying station, before scanning the room for district 3. I see them walk over to the camouflage station. I follow them over, sitting beside the male, and begin working on trying to camouflage my hand into a tree. I sit listening to their conversation, and watch to see if they're any good at this station. They aren't.

Next, they head to the edible plants station. This is just across from the throwing knives station, so I decide to have a wander over to it. I pick up a knife, and hold it by the handle. I've never thrown a knife before, I've only ever practised with a sword, so obviously I miss my target by quite a bit. I hear a small smirk beside me, and I notice that the district 4 girl has decided to join me. She looks me up and down, smiles, and then snatches a knife from my hand, aims and throws, all in one easy movement. The knife sticks right in between the eyes of the dummy, which is obviously where she was aiming for, and she smiles at me.

'That's how you do it, district 5.'

'Yes unfortunately it is physically impossible for the girl to have slow motion sight, and you threw the knife with such precision and swiftness, that even a trained eye would not have been able to capture the technique you used to throw it. So I would say you used the gesture of kindness as a way to show off, and not to teach her how to throw a knife.'

* * *

Strange.. Those words didn't come out of my mouth. I turn round to see the district 3 girl standing idly behind me, her hands still linked with that of her district partners. The girl from 4 hisses at district 3, and walks back over to join her district partner at the spear throwing station. I turn to the district 3 girl and her partner, and smile at them.

'Thank you.'

She nods, and walks back to the edible plants station. I watch her as she steps up to the testing table, and clicks start. Her hands are a blur as the presses in the right answers almost the second the picture comes up, and within a few minutes, the entire board of thousands of edible and non edible plants is cleared, replaces entirely with green lights to show that she has the answers right. She presses clear, and lets her district partner have a try. He completes it with the same speed and precision as his female counterpart, but gets one wrong.

'Nightlock..' she hisses at him. 'If this was the arena, you'd be dead.'

'But I only got one wrong!'

'One is enough to kill you Joshua!'

I decide then, that district 3 will be in our alliance. I step away from them, and start scanning the room for district 7. Ah, there they are. They're at the combat station, and both have axes in hand. Of course, district 7 would be great with axes. They're the lumber district. I watch as the boy takes a swing at a dummy with his axe, but misjudges it, and his axe falls from his hand, landing blunt end down on his foot. From the scream of pain that comes out of his mouth, I can tell that was a very heavy axe. A swarm of peacekeepers rush over to him and pick him up, carrying a still screaming boy out of the training centre with them.

Everyone in the room is staring at the district 7 girl now, half expecting her to be just as useless. She stares round the room, realising that everybody is waiting for her to do something, so she shakily grips her axe with both hands, walking up to a training dummy. She suddenly starts swinging her axe at the dummy with such precision that you'd think she'd been trained. She knocks both arms, both legs and the head off the dummy, before flipping backwards and throwing her axe towards the dummy. The blade of the axe sinks deep into the chest of the dummy, and she suddenly exhales deeply, looking round the room, to be met with a series of appreciative grunts and nods coming from the career pack. We're having the district 7 girl in our alliance.

* * *

Everybody heads back to their stations, and I look round for district 9. I notice that the boy and the girl are separated, so I head over to the boy first. He's at the knot tying station, sat next to Joshua. I stand slightly further away from the pair, and watch as the boy fails to even tie a simple knot. I don't think I want the district 9 boy in the alliance. I look around for the girl, and find she's trying out the obstacle course, along with the district 8 boy. I see Georgia there, so I stand behind her in the line to go over the course. First up is the district 8 boy.

He runs up to the course, and attempts to grab hold of a bar to swing himself over, but misjudges and falls to the floor, crying out in pain. I see Georgia shake her head, before turning my attention to the district 9 girl. She easily flies over the bars, but stops dead in her tracks as she comes across the climbing wall. She attempts to grab hold of one of the notches, but slips instantly and falls to the floor, sitting up instantly and burying her head in her hands. I shake my head, just like Georgia did, and stop for a moment to watch Georgia. She completes the obstacle course with ease, and hands on the ground with a big grin spread across her face. I smile at her, and make my way over to the sparring mats where district 11 are.

The second I see them, I turn around and walk back the way I came, because neither of them seem to be strong enough to even lift the spears. So, that's it. District 3 and the girl from 7. And maybe Joshua if I can somehow convince Georgia that he's worth it.. I guess I better see if Georgia is finished. I see that now she's over at the edible plants station alone. Close to the station is the toilets, which gives me an idea. I walk over to them, deliberately walking in the line of sight of Georgia, and pushing open the toilet door with force, attempting to get Georgia's attention.

* * *

Sure enough, she soon walks through the door, and I smile at her.

'Both from 3 and the girl from 7, you?'

She grins, nodding. 'Both from 6, and both from 10.'

'So 9 of us?'

'Mhm.'

'That's a big alliance, what about your district partner?'

'No, he's a bloodbath for sure. How about yours?'

'About him.. Look I know he's weak and useless but, the boys growing on me. Can we at least pretend he's in the alliance? I mean, he's going to die in the bloodbath anyway so what does it matter if we give him a bit of hope for his final few days?'

She stands in silence for a minute, and I wait eagerly for a decision, before she finally nods, exiting the bathroom just in time for the fourth bell today to ring, signalling the end of training for today. I walk straight out the bathroom and into the lift, to soon be joined by every other tribute. I press every single button on the keypad, and we start travelling upwards. It stops at district one's quarters first, and they both step out. The lift starts again, and keeps going up, stopping at every floor until it reaches 5. When the doors open, both me and Joshua step out the lift, and into our living space. I notice that Elena and Vincent still aren't back, so I shrug and walk straight into my room.

* * *

I peel off my clothes, and head straight for the bathroom, untying my hair and stepping straight into the shower. I must stand under the hot water for at least an hour, because by the time I get out, I can hear voices outside my room. I dry myself off, and then step out into my room, slipping on a pair of soft, chequered trousers and a simple grey top. I comb my hair, and brush it over one shoulder, before slipping on a pair of white, fluffy slippers that have been kindly placed at the end of my bed. I take a look at the clock beside my bed. 7pm. That means I'm late for dinner. I step out my room and head on over to the dining room. Sure enough there is Elena, Vincent and a very tired looking Tyrin.

'Where's Josh?' I ask, very surprised not to see him here.

'He's watching television. Said he's already eaten.' replies Vincent. I smile and mouth 'thank you', before heading to the living room.

I sit down next to Joshua, to see he's curled up on the sofa, watching a recap of a games from a tape. Each set of tapes focuses on the districts tribute, so being district 5, it is focusing on ours. I turn my head to look at Joshua, to see that he has tears falling freely down his face. I reach over him for the remote, and pause it.

'Josh, what's wrong..?'

He just stares at the screen, a small whimper escaping his lips. I look at the screen, to see a boy, around my age, lying down in the snow, a spear through his stomach. The man is lying in a similar position to Josh, his hands held tightly around the spear, and he whimpers. The boy on screen looks strikingly similar to Josh..

'Josh..? Who is that boy? Did you know him?'

'His name is Steven Riddley.. He was my dad.'

'Oh.. He seemed too young to be a father..'

'My mommy says that.. 2 weeks after he was reaped, she found out she was pregnant. He died on the 12th day of the games.. He came fourth in the 52nd Hunger Games. '

'Oh..' I leave it at that. We sit there for the next 3 hours, just watching recaps of the games in silence. Every time I think he's stopped crying, I open my mouth to talk and he starts off again. Finally, I hear nothing but his soft breath beside me. I turn off the television, and look down to him to find that he has fallen asleep. I stand up quietly, and walk across the room, opening the door to Joshua's room.

I step inside, looking round, and see that the only blanket in there is his bed spread. I sigh, pulling it off the bed, before slinging it over my shoulder and walking back to the living room. I kneel down beside Josh, and carefully pull the blanket over his sleeping body. He makes a small whimpering sound, and I smile, standing up and walking back into my room.

I waste no time in walking over to my room, and perch on the edge of my bed. Then it suddenly hits me, I realise that I am _very_ tired, and I fall back onto my bed. I barely have time to blink before everything goes black, and I fall into a deep sleep.

* * *

_**'Ivory, sir.' I say quietly, trying to seem well mannered. The man crouches down to my level, and gently cups the side of my face in his palm, stroking his thumb across my cheek, but gentle enough not to smudge my make-up.**_

_**'I know who you are.. Miss Mason..I have been waiting for you.' And with that, he turns, walking straight through the door of the training centre. This catches me completely off guard, so I turn around, as if to run after him. **_

_**'Mr. Heavensbee wait!' But it is too late, he has disappeared. I try to run through the training centre, but the doors won't open. I place my hand on the grey metal, but it burns me. I scream, and jump back, and fall into a familiar man. **_

_**'I know who you are...'**_

_**'You look cold..'**_

_**'I have been waiting for you..'**_

_**'My first year of game maker..'**_

_**He circles me now, not one of him but 4, they all circle me. Slowly, their dyed hair fades, and turns back to its natural shade of ebony black.. their skin darkens a shade, from porcelain to ivory.. and their eyes.. his eyes.. they become more dull. The man seems to be becoming younger.. He is loosing weight, loosing wrinkles, this man, this is a man I've seen so many times in the past, but I can't quite put my finger on it.**_

_**'Look after my Ivory, Mrs. Mason, and I will see to it that you are paid well..' **_

_**'Look after my Ivory..'**_

_**'I have been waiting for you..'**_

* * *

**Yeaaa, sorry if my writing gets a little sloppy towards the end ;x I started watching the walking dead and got a teeeeeny bit distracted! I do apologise.  
So, I've decided, instead of updating once a day, I'll update whenever I've finished the chapter. Because next week when school starts again I'll get less done per day. **

**-Bex**

**Edit: Me from the future! Just updating some spelling mistakes ;x**


	4. Chapter 4 - Training Cont

**I'm so sorry for the late update, I've been super busy today, and this story is a lot slower than I hoped it would be. I'm trying to put less words in each chapter but I get a bit carried away, I'll work on it. I think the next chapter should be the last chapter of training, but it will be more story line and less training. Enjoy ^-^**

* * *

Chapter 4 – Training Cont.

I am awakened by a pair of strong arms holding me close, whispering into my hair.

'It's okay Ivory.. It's okay. You're awake now it was only a dream..'

'Vincent? What are you doing here..?'

'Elena and Tyrin are out, Joshua is asleep. You were screaming.. So I thought something was wrong, I rushed in here to see you thrashing around and screaming in your sleep so I tried to wake you up, you wouldn't wake up so I pulled you close to stop you moving, and you eventually woke up..'

'Thank you Vincent.'

I then realise that Vincent is still holding me. He seems to realise it too because he quickly lets me go, and I sit cross legged in my bed. I take a look at the clock, at see it's only 4:30am.

'I don't think I can get back to sleep..' I say, frowning. Vincent takes one look at me and gets off the bed, walking over to the wardrobe. He picks something up from it, I can't really see because it's pitch black, and slings it over his shoulder. He throws it at me, and I see that it's a blanket. Not one to use as a duvet but a blanket just to put over your shoulders.

I wrap the blanket round me, and look up to see what he's doing. He is pushing buttons into the weird dial pad at the other end of the room that I've never known the use for. Shortly afterwards, an avox walks in with a tray, and sets it on the bed.

Vincent comes to join me, and leans over the tray, suddenly the space where I'm sitting illuminates with dim light, and I see that he has lit a candle. I also see that he is in his pyjamas, and looks extremely tired. I look down at the tray the avox brought in, and see that it has 2 cups, a bowl of lamb stew with two spoons and two bread rolls on it. I reach out my hand and pick up one of the cups, and almost drop it because it's so hot. I really didn't expect that. I bring the cup up to my nose and smell it, and I'm instantly hit by the strong smell of coffee.

'Coffee? Really?'

'Well.. You said you wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, so if you're going to stay up, no point staying up tired is there?'

'Good point.. You look tired.'

'Hence why there's 2 cups of coffee and not one.'

'Oh..' Is all I can respond. I reach over to the tray and pick up a bread roll, and am surprised to see it's still hot. I go to take a bite out of it, but am interrupted by Vincent.

'It's for dipping in the soup, Ivory.'

'Why would you put bread in soup..?'

'Just try it.' So, I lean over and dunk my bread in the bowl of soup, taking a bite out of the place that has soup on it. 'Mmm..'

'Told you so.' He smiles, and I smile back, taking another dunk of my bread into the soup, and then taking a sip of my coffee.

'So.. What you want to talk about?' I ask, not sure what to say.

'How about..How was your day?'

'My day?'

'Yes, your day. What did you do?'

'Well.. In the morning, when I was stood outside the training centre-'

'Why were you outside the training centre?'

'I don't know, I just didn't want to go in and socialise with the other tributes.'

'Oh okay, continue.'

'It started to rain, but soon I ran into a man, who gave me his umbrella. It was very kind of him. Turns out he is a new game maker, and had to go to a meeting, He said something about waiting for me.. And he knew my sir name.'

'Well it's likely he knows your name, he probably watched the reapings, you put on quite a show with that one. What was his name?'

'Plutarch Heavensbee.'

'Oh, doesn't ring a bell.'

'Yeah, so anyway, I went inside and then got a lecture by the trainer. Me and Josh went round a few survival stations and then stuck to the edible plants station until lunch.'

'Oh, I take it you know what to eat and what not to eat then now?'

'Hopefully. So, at lunch Joshua went to the toilet, and there was nowhere to sit, so I went and sat with the girl from district 12 and we got talking.'

'Oh really? What did you talk about?'

'I asked her for an alliance and she said yes, and she produced a piece of paper that says all the tributes strengths and weaknesses, and drew an arrow to say we were in an alliance.'

'How did she get such information?'

'She spend the whole first half sat on a platform above the edible plants station collecting notes.'

'Really? And she worked that all out just by sitting there?'

'Yeah, that's what I said! So anyway, after lunch me and Georgia went round to observe all the other tributes, and to see who we want in our alliance.'

'So who do you want in your alliance?'

'Both from 3, both from 6, Josh, the girl from 7 and both from 10.'

'Oh wow, that's a pretty strong alliance, I'm excited to see how that one turns out. A strong alliance will vastly improve your chances of winning, but make sure you pick the right time to end the alliance, and make sure it's you that ends it and not somebody else.'

'Oh okay.. '

'So what did you do then?'

'I came back here.. Had a shower then watched games recaps with Joshua, then went to sleep and had a nightmare, and woke up in your arms and well.. here we are!'

'If you don't mind me asking.. What was that dream about?'

'Well.. It was the same scene from this morning.. I met the game maker, and he rushed off, but then I tried to go inside and I couldn't get in, and I fell into somebody and it turned out to be the same game maker. Instead of helping me up, he started circling me, and then suddenly there were four of them, and he kept repeating himself. And then he started morphing, becoming younger, he turned into my father, and then I woke up.'

'Oh.. Sounds bad..'

'Yeah..'

The conversation soon patters off into silence, until we've both finished the coffee and soup. I look over at the clock to see it's only 5am, so I lay back against my bed. At some point I must have drifted off though, because I wake up alone in my room, tucked neatly into bed.

* * *

We go through the same morning routine, waking up, showering, being covered in make-up, eating breakfast, and then heading down to the training centre. This time we seem to be a few minutes late though, because by the time we get there people are already at work. I walk straight over to Georgia, who is at the throwing knives station, and pick up a knife, watching her try to figure out how to aim properly.

'So what shall we do today?' I ask, not entirely sure where to go.

'I say for the first half we talk to the tributes we want in our alliance, see if they want in, and then go train our asses off at the combat stations for the rest of the day. We can meet on the roof tonight at night, get everything sorted out. We have 5 days to get this working so I suggest we use them wisely.'

'And what do we do at lunch?'

'I say we all sit together. Show the careers that they have competition, and show the other tributes not to mess with us.'

'Ok, lets go. Odds and evens again?'

'Yeah.' And with that, she takes off in search of district 6.

It seems that district 3 has the same idea as us, because they seem to be sticking to the combat stations. I have a look round and see that they are at the archery station. Ugh, archery. I've never been good with a bow. I can use one, of course, I have been training, but I'm not particularly good at it. I can hit the target with ease but never the centre, my aim is a few inches out.

I saunter over to the station, and pick up a long bow. I take a look at district 3, to see they're both very useless. Deena has fired an arrow, and managed to make it hit the ceiling at an odd angle and fly towards the ground, landing vertical.

'If there was a prize for being terrible at archery, you'd win by a long shot.' I joke, not even looking her way as I take my stance, loading an arrow.

'A life time of intelligence comes with a price, but it's more than you'll ever have. What do you want, district 5?' She retorts, I can feel her eyes boring into the back of my head as I take my shot. My arrow glides through the air, and hits about 3 inches away from the bullseye.

'I have a preposition for you, Three.' I say, leaning back to grab an arrow from the holster that lays beside me.

'Oh really? She says, sounding genuinely intrigued. 'And what sort of preposition is this, Five?'

'An alliance. I want you and your district partner.' I say, cutting straight to the point. There's no point in being subtle about it.

'An alliance? What's in it for me and Josh?'

'A very agile and cunning girl, and a trained fighter, and protection through most of the arena.' I reply, I guess that's the truth.

'And why do you want us?' She says. What a stupid question.

'You're extremely intelligent and will be a huge survival asset to us.' I say, hopeful that she will see sense and take me up on my offer. She seems to think for a moment, before extending her hand to me.

'Uhm..?' Is all I can come out with, not entirely sure why she wants to shake my hand.

'On behalf of me and Joshua I accept your offer. A handshake is simply good manners hmm?' Well.. I guess I can't disagree with simple logic. I shake her hand, then turn to leave. I feel a weak hand on my shoulder, and I turn around.

'So what now, Five?'

'Call me Ivory, Three.'

'Call me Deena, hypocrite.' she retorts, and I grin at her. She smiles back, and then just stands there as if waiting for an answer. Oh yeah, an answer.

'Well I was just about to go try and get Seven to join the alliance..'

'The boy seemed pretty pathetic to me, he's crippled now, we can't afford someone like that weighing us down.' She says almost instantly, as if desperate not to have him in our alliance.

'I meant the girl, Deena.'

'You should make yourself more clear, Five.' She grins cheekily, before walking straight past me. I wonder where she's going, before I'm gently pushed in the direction by her district partner. I wonder where we're headed, but then I see that we're off to the sparring station. I look around to see who's there, and set eyes on the district 7 girl, axe in hand, fighting against a trainer. He has full body armour on, so nothing can hurt him, and she's on the offensive, pushing and slashing at him every blink of an eye while he blocks every hit with his sword. She keeps this up for another 4 or 5 minutes, before she finally sinks her axe into the trainers body armour, and the fake sound of a cannon runs through the station. Sinister.

The second Seven steps from the station, we three surround her, closing in until she can't go any direction without running into one of us.

'What do you want..?' She says, nothing but confidence ringing from her voice.

'We want you to join our alliance.' Says Three, before I even have the chance to speak. To this, Seven just nods, and turns to me.

'They are in the alliance because they are intelligent. Why are you here? All I've seen you do is look at plants. ' She says, then looks at me expectantly.

'I've been training all my life for the games. I can fight.' I say without hesitation.

'Prove it.' Oh, I have to show my worth for her to join my alliance? Ugh. I step over to the sparring mat, and take a look across the hundreds of different weapons to choose from, before I finally settle on a long, thin blade swinging it round a few times to practise.

'Well okay then, pick your trainer and I'll fight him.' I say. Seven smiles, and is about to speak, when she is interrupted by a booming voice coming from behind me. I jump, and swivel around to come face to face with the district 2 girl.

'Fight him.' She grins, gesturing at a huge, burly looking peacekeeper that towers over me.

'Why him..?' I say, fear obvious in my voice.

'He's my brother.. I want to see if you're worthy.' She says, and I frown slightly, backing into Deena a bit. She leans over and whispers into my ear.

'Do it. If you beat him we have a new alliance member and we also show the careers they aren't the only contenders this year. If you loose and fight well, we gain another alliance member. If you get completely fucked in the first few seconds, we're kicking you out the alliance. No pressure, Five.'

Yeah, sure, no pressure. It sure sounds like it. I take a step towards the large man, and glance at district 2. 'I'll do it.' I'm met with a very manic looking grin, as she brings her fingers to her mouth, Whistling for the other careers to come over. They all rush down from their respective stations, and stand obediently behind two, and her district partner carefully wraps his arms around her from behind, resting his head on her shoulder. God damn it, why is everybody in love in these games? It makes me feel so guilty that every single person in this room will have to die if I am to get back home.

I swing my sword around a bit more, getting use to the feel of it, before walking over to the mats and turning to face my opponent.

'So do you want to be on the offensive, or the defensive?' he asks. I ready my blade, and smile at him, before taking a step forward. I barely give him time to think what I'm doing before I lunge my blade at him. I think I've gotten a clean shot at him, but he seems to have been anticipating my actions, because he parries my sword with his instantly, pushing me backwards with his sheer strength.

'I'll take that as the offensive.' He says, and I don't bother replying. I take another step forward, and he takes a step back, bringing his sword up to meet my blade every time it comes crashing down. I push forward, battling against the sheer strength of his blocks, our swords clashing at every spare second. Every action is repeated over and over, me lunging, him blocking, me swiping, him parrying.

I push too hard at one point, and he looses his concentration for a split second. That's all it takes, and I use this opportunity to lunge forward, aiming for his armoured head. Just when I think I have him, he pushes back, and we come to a sort of stale mate. If I stop pushing down, I'll loose my balance and I will loose, and he knows that if he stops pushing up, he will also loose, so we are just stuck here in a test of endurance. That's when I notice that I'm remarkably close to the weapons rack. Just another few steps. I use every ounce of strength I have left in me to push him backwards, and he complies, walking straight into the trap. I quickly grab a knife from the stand that I've just walked up to, and use the fact both his arms are raised to dig it into his armour, right where his heart would be. The recording of a cannon sounds through the station, and I collapse onto the floor, sweating like mad.

I look on from where I lay, to see that every single tribute has gathered round to watch me and this man fight, but I'm too tired to care. I'm soon brought back to reality by the sound of clapping, coming from the collection of careers. They are all smiling, nodding approvingly at me. The way the district 1 boy looks at me terrifies me. He has evil, hungry eyes that are made to kill, and they're staring into my soul. He's staring at me like I'm some sort of possession, and he wants that possession. I shudder, shrugging off the thought, before standing up, dropping my sword and wiping a bead of sweat from my forehead.

I ignore the careers, and walk right over to district 7, who nods in approval.

'Okay, you're worthy.' She holds out her hand. 'Rennae. Rennae Soter, nice to meet you.' She speaks calmly, assertively. Jeesh, what is it with all the hand shaking today? Before I get the chance to shake her hand, I am grabbed roughly by the shoulder, and dragged away.

* * *

'District 5. What's your name.' I am spun round, and find myself in the middle of a circle of careers, all looking at me with that same look I saw from the district 1 male earlier. The person who spoke to me was the district 2 girl, who seems to be in charge of the career pack this year.

'My names Ivory Mason..' I reply, not entirely sure why I'm here.

'Well, Mason, this is de Rosé' she says pointing at the district 1 male. 'Traveth' she says, gesturing to the district 1 female, 'Syvian,' to her male counterpart, 'Dawn, and Odair.' she says to district 4. 'And I am Lucieina.' She finishes, still glaring at me. If looks could kill..She is soon interrupted by a very fake capitol accent.

'In other words, she means, this is Saffron, I am Eleanor, That's Stuart, Lucieina, Emilana and Finnick' She says, pointing to all the tributes in the same order as Lucieina.

'Or you could be like Emi, and call everyone, Saff, Elle, Stu, Lucie and Finn' Butts in Emilana.

'Shut up, bimbo.' Shouts Lucieina, and everybody instantly falls silent. She looks into my eyes, and makes me wish that I could be back out there and away from these worrying people.

'So.. Why are you telling me this?' I finally ask, genuinely confused to why I now know a bunch of different versions of their names.

'We brought you here, because we've had a discussion, and we've decided we want you in our alliance. On one condition, you prove yourself first. And by all means, you just proved yourself. So we want you in. So, are you in or are you out?' She says, straight to the point. Wow.. The careers wanting an alliance with me? This could improve my chances of getting home greatly, but it will most likely be the death of me. What I really need to do is talk it over with Georgia.

'I'll think about it..'

'Well you're either with us, or against us. Remember that Mason. You have until lunch.' She says, and with that, the entire pack turns around and heads to the combat stations. I see that Georgia and Rennae were waiting for me on the other side of the career wall, so I walk past them, trying to catch their gaze, looking pleadingly at them as I go to the toilet, hoping that one of them will get the message. I walk through the bathroom door, and wait. I mustn't wait for more than 30 seconds before Georgia comes walking through the door.

'So what was all that about?' She asks. Fair question.

'They want me in their alliance, but I have a plan.'

'And what is that plan.' She says, raising an eyebrow at me.

'I'm going to join them so I can get weapons and supplies for you guys, escape when the time is right. I'll explain later. Think you can arrange a meeting on that roof of yours later?'

'Sure, I'll sort it out. Be there at midnight okay? I'll explain to the group at lunch, tell them you're not really with the careers.'

'Good, thanks. So did you get 6 and 10?' I ask, wondering how her alliance seeking went.

'I got 6, with great difficulty, I'm going to get 10 after lunch.' She replies. I guess that's fair enough. 'How did yours go?'

'Got to 3 and 7 before the careers got to me.' I smile, before walking to the door. 'We should get going before things get suspicious.'

She nods in agreement, and we both go our separate ways. I look up at the giant clock, to see it's almost lunch time, so I head on over to the combat stations. I see Emilana is at the throwing knives station, so I head on over to her. She seems the most approachable. She is stood with a set of about 40 throwing knives attached to a vest, and it throwing them all at lightening speed, hitting her target in as many lethal places that is humanely possible. I stop and watch her a minute, before finally catching her eye.

'Hey.' She says as she sees me. 'So, have you made up your mind?'

'Yeah, I've decided I want in.' I say, trying to sound as convincing as I can, looking into her huge, sea green eyes.

'Oh goodie! Let's go and tell Lucie.' She grins, dropping her knives and grabbing hold of my forearm. She hurries on over to the spear throwing station, dragging me along with her. 'Lucie!' She squeals. Jeesh, why is this girl so overexcited? Lucieina turns around, glaring at Emilana for a moment before Emilana smiles and gives her a thumbs up.

'You chose wisely Mason.' She barely has time to get her words out before the bell rings, signalling it's time for lunch.

* * *

Everybody heads on over to the dining hall, and I notice that we are the first people here. I pick up a bread roll, and half make my way over, and half get dragged by Emilana to the career table, sitting down in between her and Saffron. We are soon joined by the rest of the careers, who all seem almost friendly compared to how they were in training. I look around to see that my entire alliance is sat round a table. I see 6, 3, Rennae and Joshua leaning in close, listening to what Georgia has to say. I am quickly drawn back to attention by Saffron.

'Why are you staring at them like that?' he asks inquisitively.

'They look suspicious, that's all..' I reply, not really paying much attention to his words.

'So, Mason, you're good with a sword, I get that, but how? You're from district 5.' Lucieina asks, drawing the packs attention to me.

'I'm not _from_ district 5, I just live there. And, I have training because my mother is a victor, and can afford it. We travel to the capitol a lot, and my mother is married to a peacekeeper. He gives me lessons.' I reply, being cautious of what I say.

'Where are you from then, Mason?' She asks. I wish she'd stop talking, her tone of voice is so threatening.

'I'm from the capitol. Or, well I was born there. But, my mom is from district 5 so we moved from the capitol to district 5 when I was 7.' I have to stick to the story. For some reason I'm not aloud to tell people that I'm adopted, because it could cause unwanted attention.

'I see.. How interesting. Why did she move to district 5, knowing there was a chance you'd be reaped? More importantly, why did she let you volunteer?'

'She wanted another victory to the Mason name. So, I promised her I'd give her one as a thanks for everything she's done for me.' I say, not too far from the truth.

'Ah, a noble one I see. You volunteered for similar reasons to I then. My brother, a very good peacekeeper. As you can see, works in the capitol. My sister is heir to one of the richest families in our district, while my mother just spent her days caring for me, so I volunteered to say thank you to her, to bring glory to our name among our districts people. Syvian volunteered because he wanted to make sure I will win, isn't that right Syvian.'

I realise then, that I haven't heard a single word from the district 2 male since he volunteered. He just nods in response, a very twisted smile on his face. Lucieina turns her attention back to me.

'So, what else can you do?'

'I can throw a spear, and I'm fairly good at archery.'

'Is that it?'

I nod in response, and then she turns from me to address the group. 'I say we split into pairs for the remaining 1 and a half days of training. Today we finish off combat stations, tomorrow we focus on survival. Any objections?' She doesn't even give anyone the chance to speak, before starting again. 'Good. de Rosé, Mason, you're together. Dawn and Traveth, Syvian and Odair. I will go try and convince 10 to join the alliance, like we agreed this morning.'

Damn, so they're going after district 10 as well as us? They must be a pair of good tributes. Lets hope they don't accept.

* * *

**So yea, hope you enjoyed. Thank's to Ella (MintyElla) for reviewing the last chapter(: I appreciate it :D I should probably be off to sleep at it's 3am so.. Yea! If you liked it, review, if you didn't, review and tell me why you didn't like it. Bye bye for now!**


	5. Chapter 5 - Training Scores

**Okay so, first off I'm sorry for the late update but I've not been able to write over the last 2 days due to personal reasons, but I promise I'll update quicker in the future. It all seems to be going so fast! Just one more chapter until the games start. The next chapter will be quite short, so I made this one a bit longer to compromise, if that works. **

* * *

Chapter 5 – Training Cont.

The bell rings to signal the end of lunch, and I stand up, looking for Saffron. He soon sidles up to me, and we both head to the spear throwing section, because he claims to be the next Tiberius. Tiberius is a fearful district 2 victor from 3 years ago, who won his games with a single spear. I stand idly beside him as he picks up a spear, and yawn.

'So, Saffron de Rosé. Cool name, where'd it come from?' I ask. I'm not really interested but I guess it's just small talk..'

'We are one of the richest families in the district. Along with the de Montforts, and the Voors. The richer families tend to have more.. Sophisticated names.' He says.

'So, who are the richest family then?'

'The Traveths.' He replies, throwing his spear with deadly power. The spear flies through the air, and tears through the heart of a dummy.

'Damn, nice shot.' I say, genuinely impressed.

'Well what did you expect. I've been training my entire life for this, and apparently so have you.' He says, well, I guess I can't argue with that. I follow suit, picking up a spear and repeating his actions. I manage to spear a dummy almost as precisely as he did, to which he nods and walks off towards the archery station. We spend the rest of the afternoon shooting arrows, and learning how to throw knives. I notice that both of us are pretty crappy at it.

By the time I get into the lift, I get instantly piled by careers, being forced to take a corner.

'I can't believe they turned me down!' Hisses Lucieina, growling. Stuart comes up behind her and gently rubs her shoulders, before resting his head in the crook of her neck.

'It's okay, they're only tributes, We'll let you kill them if you want.' he says soothingly into her ear. 'You can kill them.' She seems to calm down a little at this, and leans back against him.

'I just feel like I failed the group, that's all.' She says, yawning.

'Uhm, just wondering Lucie, who turned you down?' Says Emilana, seeming oddly happy about the whole situation.

'Can it Dawn, my name's Lucieina, not Lucie.' She growls, looking like she's about to explode.

'I think she means district 10, Emilana.' I say, not wanting there to be a fight so early on in the alliance.

'Call me Emi!' She says, a stupid grin upon her face.

'Sure.. Emi..' I say, slightly worried about how happy she seems.

'Thanks, Mason.' Says Stuart, still gazing lovingly at Lucieina. Why the hell did he volunteer with her knowing only one of them could get out? People do some crazy things for love. The lift finally stops at district 1, where Saffron and Eleanor exit, and then zooms over to district 2. Stuart and Lucieina smile and wave at us, and then there's just me, Finnick and Emi left.

'I can't wait for this alliance to end Finn, that Lucie is such a bitch.' says Emi, loosing her bubbly aura.

'Well don't worry, Em, As soon as Mags sends the signal I'm going to break it up.' He replies.

'What's the signal?' She says questioningly, looking him in his beautiful, sea green eyes.

'I don't know Em, I don't know.' He says, before he catches my gaze. They both must have realised I was listening to them, because they glare in my direction, and keep glaring at me as they walk out onto the district 4 floor. I then relax, thankful that I'm now alone. Soon enough, it stops at the district 5 station, and me and Joshua both step out the elevator.

'Aha! They're...finally...back!'Says Tyrin in his obnoxious capitol accent.

'Yes well done Tyrin, but we kind of figured that out for ourselves.' Grumbles Elena, from where I can't exactly see. I push past both Tyrin and Joshua, walking straight towards my bedroom door.

'Don't forget Iv-' says Tyrin, to which I quickly butt in. 'Yes yes. I know, don't forget Ivory, dinner at 7 don't be late!' I say, mimicking his strained, capitol accent. 'Well thanks but I think I'll eat in my room tonight, I'm tired.' I say, before opening up my door and stepping inside. I instinctively want to throw myself onto my bed and curl up into the soft sheets, but I restrain myself, walking towards the bathroom. I take another shower, before looking to my wardrobe, picking out a skin tight pair of black leather trousers, and a black, skin tight top. I put on a pair of black, patent leather high heeled boots, and just leave my hair down.

I sit beside my bed, and carefully adjust my alarm clock to 5 minutes before midnight. I then decide that sleeping with patent leather boots on will be very impractical, so I kick them off, and lay back on my bed, with the intent of thinking for a few hours. This thought goes unnoticed though, because my body seems to take laying down as a queue to sleep, and I soon find myself woken up by the sounds of my alarm, sounding right next to my ear.

I switch it off, and swing my legs over the side of my bed groggily, I pull my boots on, and brush my hair, pulling it into a tight ponytail, before standing up and heading out the door. I notice that there is nobody out here, so they must all be asleep. I make my way over to the lift, and press the call button waiting. When the lift doors open, I'm surprised to see the boy from district 3 waiting behind them. I step in, and lean against a wall, expecting he knows where he's going.

'Hey, Joshua.' I say, once again making small talk. 'Where's Three?'

'You mean Deena? She left with out me. Said I was too slow.' He says, a hint of disappointment in his voice when talking about his girlfriend. 'And, uh, call me Twitch, if you want.'

'Why Twitch?'

'It was a nickname my parents use to give me. If I'm not going home to them, I'd at least want to feel a little bit more home' He says. Well, I really can't argue with that.

'Kay then, Twitch.' Eventually, the elevator stops, and we walk up some stairs onto the roof. The roof is a huge open space, with benches and flowers and bushes everywhere, it's hard to believe it's actually a roof and not someone's garden. 'Wow it's stunning up here.' I saw, awe-struck by this beautiful place. We walk around a bit, until we come across a clearing with benches on it. Sat there I see district 6, Georgia, Three and Rennae. This is the first time I've had a good look at 6, but I notice how similar they look. I take a seat next to the male, and stick my hand out to him.

'Ivory Mason.' He shakes my hand, smiling, before bringing it up to his lips, kissing it gently.

'Samuel Ignatius, and my sister Lia.' He says humbly, and I snatch my hand away. Disgusting. Lia punches him in the arm, to which he lets out a playful whimper and gently rubs the place she hit.

'So, how old are all you guys?' says Rennae. Fair question I guess.

'18' I say, smiling.

'14.' Says Georgia.

'14' Chorus Twitch and Three.

'18' Says Sam, giving me a little wink. I make a barfing gesture, and turn to Lia.

'15' She says in a sweet voice, to which I smile.

'Well I'm 16 so that makes, 2 18 year olds, a 16 year old, a 15 year old and 3 14 year olds.' Says Rennae, grimacing.

'Don't forget Josh, he's 12.' Says Lia, frowning.

'But he's a bloodbath so he doesn't count.' Says Rennae coldly, looking at all of us in turn, as if daring anyone for a challenge.

'So, we basically have 2 nights to discuss our entire arena plans.' Says Georgia. 'Ivory, you're going to bring us supplies when the Career alliance breaks? Well when we see the career faces in the sky, We will meet you..' She pauses to think for a bit. 'North west of the tip of the cornucopia. Deal?' She says, looking directly into my eyes.

'Okay, I'll meet you there.'

'Lia, you're great at climbing. You can scavenge for us.'

Lia nods, then looks at Georgia, then at Samuel.'You're both very sneaky, and very fast. I think that if we run low on supplies you can sneak up on the careers, and steal some supplies from them. Ivory can maybe help us and feed us supplies. I mean, it should be no problem, Samuel is a master thief.'

'A thief? Says Rennae in disgust. 'What on earth were you thieving for?'

He quickly jumps to his defence. 'Our father is a morphling addict, I had no other choice. Lia would have starved otherwise..' And in response, Lia snuggles down into his side, him wrapping his arm around her.

'Sounds like a plan.' I say. 'Three, Twitch, you're in charge of food, considering how good you both are with the survival stations. Rennae and I will be good fighters, so we'll sleep near the people on watch to make sure there's always somebody ready if we're woken up.'

Everybody nods, and I smile. We spend the next few hours just laughing among ourselves, before Twitch states that by the moon he can tell it's around 4am, and we should all get back to our rooms. So we do. I step out onto the district 5 floor and head for my room, instantly falling flat on my face, sinking into my bed.

* * *

This time, I am woken up not by my alarm, not by Tyrin or Vincent, but by Joshua. He shakes me violently, and I jolt up. 'Wake up, you missed breakfast.' great, lovely. I change into my training clothes, before walking out to the elevator, stomach rumbling. 'And dinner.' he says, looking up to me. By the time we get down to the training floor, we have 20 minutes until we can start training. I walk away from Joshua and right over to the career pack, who all smile and wave at me, well, except for Lucieina. Of course.

'Hey, Mason.' she says, still staring at me. '

'Hello Lucieina.' I say, smiling at her. 'Where's district 4?'

'Odair is in the bathroom, Dawn is still asleep according to him.'

I nod, before leaning against the wall next to Saffron.

'de Rosé, you any good at survival stations?' says Lucieina.

'Not at all, Elle is okay though' says Saffron, letting out a yawn. Eleanor spins around at the mention of her name, a questioning look set upon her face.

'If you say so. Hey Ivory, are you any good?'

'Well I spent the first day on survival stations.. So I guess I'm okay.' I reply, Saffron's yawn catching on to me.

'Well then de Rosé looks like you have a head start.' says Lucieina. As soon as she says this a very green looking Emi bursts through the elevator, and out the glass doors, into the ever present rain. She keels over, and then runs round the corner. She is soon followed out the lift by a very drunk looking mentor, which I realise is Haymitch Abernathy, District 12's mentor. I know this because I had a brief conversation with him a few years ago on one of Elena's trips to the Capitol, before he started drinking. He's the winner of the 2nd Quarter Quell. I obviously don't remember it because I was only a young toddler, but apparently the loss of one of his district partners caused him to shy away near the top of a mountain, which was on the edge of the forcefield. He used the forcefield to trick a girl into killing her self, which caused him to win, at the expense of his entire family.

I see that Haymitch has puke stains all over his lapel, which causes me to wretch and turn the other way, just in time for Finnick to get back. He walks up to us, and then smiles at me. I mean, come on, I know he's only 14 but man he is gorgeous. It's such a shame he was reaped, such a waste of good looking. I look around to see that both Lucieina and Eleanor must be thinking the same thing, by the way they stare, frowning at him.

'Em still in bed?' he says, looking worriedly towards the clock that now displays the time 09:55. Which means Emi has 5 minutes to top puking. Saffron points out the glass doors, to outside.

'She's out there. Got trapped in the lift with the drunk from 12.'

'Thank you.' says Finnick, jogging off through the big, glass doors, and round the corner Emi went. He returns a few minutes later with his arm around Emi, who looks very pale.

'I've never seen anything so disgusting in my life.' She says, holding a hand to her stomach. If she has such a weak stomach, she's going to have a very very hard time in the games this year.

* * *

The second the bell rings, Saffron grabs my arm, running over to the knot tying station, sitting down.

'Why the knot tying station?' I ask, staring down at him, waiting for him to let go of my arm, but he doesn't. He pulls me down onto the chair next to him before finally letting go.

'I want to know how to make a good snare, so I can catch people in it then spear'em.' he says, grinning widely. It sickens me to think of how eager he is to get a kill.

'Oh, awesome.' I say half-heartedly, before picking up a piece of nylon string. I try and pull a piece off, and fail, before turning to Saffron.

'Hey, can you break this? Its very strong.' Saffron takes the nylon coil, and pulls at it until there's blue veins visible on his temples.

'Well shit, that stuff is good. We gotta get our hands on some of this in the arena man!' He says, a large grin on his face. I smile back at him.

'Deal.' So, we spend the rest of the morning at the knot tying station, learning to make some snares, and for the record, Saffron de Rosé is alarmingly good at this. When the bell sounds for lunch, we walk over, still engrossed in conversation.

'So then I said, 'Get your mom to do it', and, you know what she said?' He says, grinning as we sit down at the table.

'What?' I say, desperate to know the answer.

'My mom is dead..' he says in a fake sad voice, his bottom lip quivering. It takes one look at his face for me to burst out laughing, which causes him to start laughing too. It takes us about 3 minutes before we both calm down, and I breath heavily, leaning against Saffron slightly.

We are soon joined by Lucieina, who instantly gets down to business.

'Okay, so it's the training sessions after training today, and we're going to get our scores. What are you all going to do?' She asks, looking at Saffron, because he's the first to go in.

'I think I'm going to set some snares, and throw some spears.' he says proudly. 'Maybe throw a few weights around.'

She turns to Eleanor.

'I think I'm going to do some sword play, maybe start a fire, I don't know.'

'Well okay then.' she says, turning to look at her partner.

'I'm going to shoot some arrows, have a bit of a spar with a trainer, throw some weights around.' He says, before sliding an arm around her waist. 'How about you?'

'I'm going to shoot some flying targets and throw some knives.' she says, smiling at him in a way only lovers can smile towards each other. She looks at Finnick then.

'Going to set some snares, have a sword fight with a trainer, and Em is going to throw some knives.' He says, gently running a hand through Emi's hair. She is curled up into his side, still looking pale.

Lucieina looks at me then, and I smile at her.

'I'm going to show some survival tactics, agility, going to have a sword fight, going to shoot a couple of arrows and so on.' I say, and she nods in approval.

'Aim for 10's guys. The 2 people with the lowest scores have to take first watch, okay?' she says, and we all grumble, nodding. The bell rings to show that we have to go back to training, and I stand up. This time it's me dragging Saffron over to the fire starting station, and I grin at him.

'Make a fire.' I say, and he nods. It takes him a while, but he finally manages it. I nod in appreciation at him, and he smiles at me.

'Now you make one.' he says, grinning.

'Well I was thinking I'd learn how to make a new one, if it's all the same to you.' I say, returning his grin. He nods, and then picks up 2 rocks.

'What the hell are you going to do with 2 rocks, Saffron?'

He just shrugs, and gets back to his 'work'. I get some logs and tinder, and then take a rock, a stick and a knife, before cutting the end of the stick so it's pointy. I think that's how you do it. I start rubbing the stick on the rock, but it doesn't seem to do anything. I sit there, hunched over an unlit fire for what seems like a life time until I feel a pair of strong arms wrap around my back, and gently prise the rock and stick from my fingers.

He whispers in my ear, looking over my shoulder, and throws the rock away. 'Like this, Ivory.' says Saffron, taking the stick and putting it between his palms, rubbing it against one of the twigs I put down. After a while, I see it has created a lot of friction, and it soon catches a spark, setting fire.

'Oh..' is all I can say in response as he takes his arms from around me, pulling me up with him.

'Come on lets go to a different station.' He says, and we spend our remaining time doing just that. We head on over to the lunch room, and sit down at a grey table.

* * *

When the whole pack is here, they are all oddly silent. Everybody in the room sits in complete and total silence. I think they're starting to realise that this really is real, they're going into the games. A small, skinny man in a suit, carrying a rather official looking clip board, the symbol of Panem printed on the back, pokes his head out the door, pushing up his glasses.

'Saffron de Rosé?'

Saffron gets up from beside me, and heads towards the door, waving towards us. He soon disappears from sight. We wait around 15 minutes before the man walks through the door again.

'Eleanor Traveth?' Again the same process.

'Stuart Syvian?' And again..

'Lucieina Equies?' And again..

'Joshua Daniels?' And again..

'Deena Evereth?' And again..

'Finnick Odair?' And again..

'Emilana Dawn?' And again..

'Joshua Riddley?' And again..

'Ivory Mason?' An- Oh wait, that's me. I stand up, walking through the door. I have the training center to myself for 15 minutes. I must have been sat there for about an hour and 15 minutes, but Georgia have to sit there for a good 6 hours

I stand facing the game makers, a serious expression on my face.

'Ivory Mason, 18, district 5.' I say confidently, before walking over to the knot tying station. I take a coil of nylon string, grinning. My plan will be sure to get me a good score. I walk over to a blank wall, and start setting up a share with a few branches. I then walk over to the door, and smile at one of the peacekeepers.

'Hello, can I borrow you?' I say to him, smiling sweetly. He looks at me confusedly, and I direct him to the sword station, picking the same sword I use to defeat Lucieina's brother. He picks a similar sword, and I tell him to stand about 20ft away from the place I set my snare, his back to it.

I look up, to see I have all the game makers attention, before turning round, and instantly lunging at the peacekeeper. This of course takes him by surprise, and he struggles to block my attack. I continue to push forward, which causes him to step back a little. This is exactly what I wanted, and I start to swing my sword quickly at him, slashing and cutting, playing the offensive to all it's worth. Still clearly shocked, and very surprised at the fact I can fight, I use my offensive position to push him back the final few steps I need.

The peacekeeper lets out a very frightened yelp, as he goes soaring into the air, his back leg now bound by a single unbreakable nylon thread. I can tell he is embarrassed because his cheeks are very red, and he frantically tries to lean up and pull the nylon loose, to no prevail. I walk up to him, and press the tip of my sword very gently to his chest.

'You're dead.' I whisper, and then look up to the game makers to see them giving some approving nods. The man who seems to be head game maker smiles at me, and then waves.

'That is all, Miss Mason!' He shouts, and I walk towards the elevator, pressing the number for my district floor.

* * *

When I arrive, I'm immediately cornered by Elena. 'How did it go? What did you do? Did the game makers look pleased?'

'It went well. I hung a peacekeeper and then killed him, the game makers looked very pleased.' Is what I mean to say, but as soon as I finish the second sentence, I'm greeted by a loud shout from across the room.

'YOU DID WHAT!?'

Vincent comes storming over, grabbing me by the shoulders. 'Please don't tell me I heard you say you killed a peacekeeper.'

'..Not killed.. I caught him upside down in a snare and pointed my sword onto his chest and said 'You're dead', not killed him.' I say quickly in my defence. Despite his age, Vincent looks absolutely terrifying.

'Phew..' the relief floods through the room, and I hear 2 more relieved sighs coming from the living room.

'I'm going to go take a nap' I say. 'What time are the scores up?' I ask, yawning.

'Midnight.' Says Vincent, and I trot off to my room. My alarm is still set for midnight from last night, so I just lay down on my bed, slowly falling to sleep.

I wake up with a start by my alarm, it rings loudly throughout the room. I get out of bed, thinking its morning, before I look out the giant window and see that it's night. Oh yeah, training scores. I take the blanket Vincent gave me and walk out the room, taking a seat next to Elena in the living room. I curl up against her, putting the blanket over us both, and Tyrin turns on the training scores, the light of the television the only thing lighting the room, causing an eerie glow.

Caeser Flickerman speaks for a bit, and we sit and listen, the whole room silent. Then comes up a picture of Saffron.

Saffron le Rosé, District 1 is labelled on it, and soon underneath it comes a large, flashing number 8. High for a tribute but low for a career, which isn't good for him. I stop thinking, and just let the program read out the scores.

Eleanor Traveth, District 1  
9

Stuart Syvian, District 2  
10

Lucieina Equies, District 2  
11

Wait what? An 11? I know she's good but wow and 11? They never give any higher than an 11. She must be elated. Soon it moves on to the next tribute, and I settle back down.

Joshua Daniels, District 3  
6

Deena Evereth, District 3  
7

A 7? I'm proud of her.

Finnick Odair, District 4  
9

Emilana Dawn, District 4  
10

Ah great, that means it's our district then.. I look over to Joshua, and he looks nervously at me in return.

Joshua Riddley, District 5

…

3.

Everybody in the room gasps, and Joshua instantly starts crying, burying his head in his hands. They all go silent soon though, because then it's my face that's flashing up.

Ivory Mason, District 5  
9

Wow a 9? I didn't expect more than a 7, this means great news for my sponsors, but not great news for Saffron, because that means he's on first watch. Elena tightens her grip against me, smiling widely.

Samuel Ignatius, District 6  
5

Lia Ignatius, District 6  
6

I look around, to see that Joshua is smirking. Sam is going to be so pissed that his sister got a higher score than him. I spend too much time laughing about this, because I miss the next score. Elena seems to notice, because she mouths the word 'Seven', and then turns her attention back to the screen.

Rennae Soter, District 7  
8

Nice, an 8. I don't really pay attention to the next district, because they don't concern me. They both get relatively low scores, and so does the district 9 male.

Mintila Vervi, District 9  
6

She must have done very well getting a 6 from what we saw, but it clearly wasn't from agility.

Stock Goldenrod, District 10  
11

An 11..? Wow.. This must be why everybody wants district 10. That's two 11's given out in one night. I can't help but feel very scared as I look up

Marlowe Aelfwine, District 10  
11

So that's 3 11's in one night.. I frown, feeling slightly faint. I also feel very worried that the odds are certainly not in my favour any more. They were before I came here, but with Marlowe, Stock and Lucieina, I have no chance. I push away from Elena, and stagger back to my room, sliding beneath the sheets.

I lay there for what feels like hours, whimpering quietly, until I finally find it in me to fall to sleep.

* * *

'Ivory, Ivory honey wake up it's 11am' says Elena, softly into my ear. I allow myself to be shaken awake by her, before sitting up.

'Ugh mum what have I told you about waking me up so early.' I say, curling into her and yawning.

'Honey you have a lot to do today, we need to find a good angle for you to work in your interviews.' Interviews? I open my eyes finally, and realise I'm not in my bed at home, but in the capitol. Interviews for the hunger games, which I volunteered for. Oh.

I stand up, and walk to the bathroom, realising I haven't eaten in almost 2 days. Elena seems to read my thoughts, because she soon speaks up. 'Ivory honey, you haven't eaten in a long time, you need to get some food down you. Eat as much as you can over the last few days okay?'

'But Elena.. You know I have problems with eating.' I say, and it's true. Ever since I can remember I just haven't been feeling hungry. I'd starve myself without realising, and would end up being very ill.

'I know darling, you go take a shower and I'll be waiting with some food for you, then we can sit and talk about angles. You'll have to get ready soon though because you have a mentoring session with Tyrin in 4 hours.' Oh god.. 4 hours with Tyrin? Kill me now.

'...Niice..' I say, and head for the shower. About an hour later I emerge, still in my pyjamas which I just put back on after my shower. I sit next to Elena, who, true to her word, has a bowl of chicken soup, some bread and a mug of what can only be hot chocolate, with those little mini marshmallows in.

'So, angles, what will suit you best?' she says, grinning as I take a spoon and taste the soup, then eat my bread.

'I don't know, vulnerable, humble, flirty, feisty.' I say, stating the first thing that comes to mind.

'Okay then, we'll try all of them out then I guess.' She says. 'By the way, are you in any alliances yet?'

'I'm with the careers and another alliance for when the careers split up.' Her eyes go wide, and she chokes a bit on the piece of chicken she's eating.

'The.. Careers, well..okay then.. If you say so..' So, we spend the next 2 hours eating and having fake interviews, trying a new approach each time. Eventually we settle on confident, capitol loving and a little bit feisty. We just chat for the next 30 minutes, before I get ready for Tyrin, yawning loudly.

'Well, isn't this going to be fun.' I say, before stepping out the room with Elena. I'm met by a very pissed of looking Joshua. He makes a little strangling gesture, then puts 2 fingers to his temple and mimics shooting himself. I roll my eyes at him, and then walk on over to the living room, where Tyrin is seated. He makes me put on a ball gown, and puts some large high heels on me. It takes me a good 2 hours to walk without faltering, and the other 2 to make me talk 'sophisticatedly' he says. 4 hours 'well spent' he says. To be honest I think it was a complete waste of time. I spend the rest of my night in my room, watching boring, pointless television, before finally falling asleep for once, on a full stomach.

* * *

**Big thanks to Pinklove21, my favorite fan fiction writer, who has so generously given up her time to read this story and give me some tips on it, and she's also reviewed every single chapter. If you don't get the hint, you should go check out some of her fan fictions, she's a brilliant writer. Thanks to Taralani for reviewing again, but I assure you it will not go anywhere near The World Will Be Watching3. Again, a great fanfiction, check it out. See'ya at the next chapter folks!**

-Bex


	6. Chapter 6 - Interviews

**This chapter is a little short, because the games start next chapter, so I didn't have much else to write about, and also I'm very very busy today (Anniversary yay:]) and also I couldn't add this to the last chapter because it was like 3am when I finished it (I write better at night) and it's already longer than other chapters.**

* * *

Chapter 6 – Interviews

This morning, I'm woken up by my prep team pretty much breaking down the door. This is the last day before the games, so this could be the last time I have with Elena before I die, so I intend to make the most of it. Or, I would if I didn't have to spend the whole day being ripped apart by my prep team in preparation for the interviews.

My alarm went off at midnight again, because I forgot how to turn it off, and then I didn't sleep again until about 5am, so I probably only have had about 4 hours of sleep. I turn to my left to see that my alarm clock displays the time 15:32. Damn. I slept until half 3 in the afternoon? Wow. My prep team instantly push me out the door, and cart me over to the remake center, not even giving me time to change into something less.. pyjama-like.

Oh, wait this means a whole day with Jasten? God damnit.

'Beauty base zero!' yells Castella.

'Affirmative' yells Anastasia.

'C'appn Astraea ready for action!' squeaks Astraea.

They all burst into a fit of giggles, as they strip me from my dignity and throw me in a tub of some thick, cream coloured liquid. I spend the next hour or so soaking in this stuff, as they chatter about a new television show that they're into. It's about 3 girls who travel throughout space and time giving makeovers to those in trouble. A typical Capitol television show.

Finally, they drag me out the tub, and lay me on the cold metal table that's in the middle of the room. They strip pretty much everything off me, every inch of hair every well, everything, and shape my nails into perfect little ovals, glossing them with some sort of shiny, clear stuff. They wash my hair and dry it so it's simply straight, then just leave me there.

'Let's go get Jasten.' says Astraea. 'You're going to love the dress he made Ivory, really.'

'I'm sure I will.' I say, yawning. Soon, a very excited looking Jasten walks into the room.

'Ivory Mason you are going to look beautiful.'

'What time is it?' I ask, looking over to him.

'It's 6pm. You have 2 hours until your interview.'

Oh. Only 2 hours huh? Jasten calls my prep team back inside, and they get to work on doing my make-up. I am forced to close my eyes until they're finished. I can feel that they're doing something with my hair, but I really can't tell what. Finally one of them takes my hand and tells me to stand up. I feel something being pulled over my body, and it's very very tight fitting, and doesn't feel like a dress at all, just sort of a clingy tube of cloth. I am told to put my arms out, so I do, and somebody starts winding some sort of soft fabric around me.

After about 15 minutes of this, they stop.

'Okay, you can open your eyes now.' Says Jasten, and I open them. Wow.

* * *

Anonymous POV

Ah, the interviews. I've been looking forward to them for the last week or so, I'm very intrigued to see what the tributes are wearing this year, especially that gorgeous Finnick Odair. He's so handsome.. I've paid a lot of money to get a seat in the audience right behind the mentors and stylists. I look down to see District 2's very own Enobaria at my feet. She has to be my favourite victor of all time. I take a pen out of my purse, and gently lean down, cautiously tapping her on the shoulder.

'Can I help you?' She says, turning round to face me.

'Uhm.. So sorry to bother you Ma'am, but.. Could you possibly.. sign my programme?' I say, hardly able to speak with excitement. She smiles warmly at me, taking my pen and programme from me.

'I would be delighted to!' she says. 'Who am I making it out to?'

I hurriedly tell her my name. She writes it down and signs her name at the bottom, before handing it back to me.

'So, who are you sponsoring this year?' she says.

'Nobody yet, that's why I came to the interviews.' I say, and she smiles.

'Well why don't you think about sponsoring my tribute Lucieina? She's fantastic I tell you.'

'I'll think about it!' I say, right before the lights go down, and spotlights race across the stage. A booming voice calls out, along with some very catching music.

'Ladies and gentlemen, your master of ceremonies, Caeser Flickerman!'

Every camera turns to the man who is turning round in his chair, and the spotlights go to him as he grins widely, standing up. We all rise to our feet, cheering and screaming his name.

'Thank you! Thank you and thank...you!' He says, bowing to the audience and waving. 'Welcome welcome welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the 65th Annual Hunger Games!'

Everybody screams more, clapping and screaming, it's all I can hear.

'Now, In about 5 minutes..we're going to bring out our first tribute! How do you like that, ladies and gentlemen!?' he shouts, and we all cheer in response. Caesar talks about how everything's going so far, and recaps the training scores.

'Now then, let us bring out our first tribute of the night, who scored a 9 in training, Eleanor Traveth!' he says, and she steps out. She is wearing a long, floor length dress that looks like it's made entirely of diamonds, this girl looks so beautiful. We all rise to our feet and roar applause at her, screaming and shouting her name. When we finally quieten down, she takes a seat.

'So, Eleanor, are you excited to be here?'

'I am _very_ excited to be here Caesar. I've been dreaming of this moment for my entire life.'

'Oh really, and how are you finding the Capitol?'

'It's everything I ever dreamed of and more, it's so beautiful and so.. so powerful. I hope that I can come back and live here, and become part of your amazing world!'

'Ah, that's beautiful. So what is your favourite thing about the Capitol?'

'I have to say the lights, it's very pretty, I like to look out the window at night and just gaze at the city.'

'Oh I see, so how would you feel about living here'

'It would be so amazing!'

'Well how about, if you get out of there we can set you up with a house right in the middle of the Capitol, what would you say to that?'

'I would love it so very much!'

The bell sounds, signalling the end of the interview.

'Well I'm afraid that's all we have time for, it's been a pleasure talking to you Eleanor!'

'It's been lovely talking to you too, Caesar.'

And with that she walks out.

'And onto our next tribute. He scored an 8 in training, please welcome District 1's Saffron de Rosé!'

Oh my what a pretty name. He steps out, and he's wearing a pale blue suit, which compliments his pale blue eyes.

'Hello Caesar.'

'Why hello Saffron! It's very nice to meet you'

'Nice to meet you too.'

This boy is boring, so I don't really pay attention.

'Please welcome, the feisty girl who scored an 11 in training, Miss Lucieina Equies!' Oh, that's Enobaria's tribute, and she's wearing such.. odd clothes. She is wearing a white shirt, unbuttoned to her cleavage, and a pair of very short shorts, that are held up by a pair of red suspenders. She's wearing a pair of very high, strappy high heels, and her hair is braided over one shoulder, her fringe hanging loose over one eye.

'Hello. I'd say it's lovely to be here but it isn't.' Oh my how rude!

'Oh? And why not?'

'Because I just can't wait to get in that arena, and this is just making it longer!'

'And do you think you can win?'

'I think my training score answers that for you.'

'Ah I see. So do you have anybody waiting for you at home?'

'Only my parents.'

'You don't have any siblings?'

'I do, I have a brother but, he's a peacekeeper so he won't be at home, he's posted right here in the Capitol.'

'And you don't have anybody.. Special? Anybody you have your eyes on?'

'I have a boyfriend'

'And won't he be there waiting for you?'

'Of course not.'

'Why not?'

'Because he's my district partner, we're in this together.' This is met by a series of awhs from the crowed, including me. How heart breaking.

'Oh that's so sad, but I'm afraid that's all we have time for.'

We are soon joined by her district partner.

'So Stuart, what possessed you to volunteer with your girlfriend? You do know only one can come out right?'

'I'm not here to win, I volunteered to make sure that my girlfriend wins these games, I am here to protect her from every harm.'

'And she let you?'

'She didn't know until it was too late.'

Oh my, this really is an emotional games. I hope for both their sakes that she gets out.

He leaves, and is followed by a very bored looking girl, a frightened boy and a very overly happy looking girl.

'District 4's Finnick Odair!'

He steps out. He is wearing a black suit with a white shirt, and he looks so beautiful.. so flawless.. I'm too busy oogling at him that I don't even notice when he leaves.

'She scored a 9 in training, district 5's Ivory Mason!'

The girl walks out, and she's wearing a thin, flowing dress that sweeps down to the floor, opening at her thigh to reveal one, long pale leg. The blue fabric is very floaty and thin, and looks so striking next to her pale skin. She's wearing a pair of very high black heels, with straps that wind all the way up her calves, and her black hair is pulled back into a high ponytail, and curled down her back. She has very big blue eyes that rest nicely against her skin, framed in black.

'Hello Caesar!' She says as she sits down.

'Hello Ivory, what a beautiful name.'

'Thank you, Caesar isn't such a bad name either.' She says, grinning.

'So Ivory, I understand you are a daughter of one of our victors?'

'Yes I am the daughter of Elena Mason'

Oh really? I remember hearing about her when I was a little girl. She made a big impact, and was very well desired in the Capitol.

'Oh really? So you're a wealthy citizen of district 5?'

'Actually, I don't class myself as a district 5 citizen.'

'Why not?'

'I was born and raised in the Capitol, and moved to district 5 when I was 3 years old, so I class myself as Capitolian. I am a Capitolite, one of you.' She says. Oh my, there's a Capitolite in the games! One of our own!.

'Oh wow that really is something, tell us, why did you volunteer?'

'I wanted to win the games my entire life, so I can move back here to my home on my own.'

'And do you think you can win?'

'I don't think I can, Caesar, I know I can.'

'Oh how confident, well that's all we have time for, ladies and gentlemen, the Capitols own Ivory Mason!'

and then she leaves. The rest of the interviews are pretty boring, apart from the girl from district 12. She walks out wearing a puffy, black, sleeveless mini dress, with a large bow round the middle, and answers all her questions with menacing, one word answers. She looks so small, but so powerful.

So that concludes the interviews, and I think that I know who I'm sponsoring.

* * *

**The next chapter will be up sometime in the next 2 days, because I'm too busy today to write at all, but it will be up before monday! Heh I can't wait for the games. Thanks to Pinklove21 for reviewing the last chapter(: peace out!**

**-Bex**


	7. Chapter 7 - The Bloodbath

**not include too much detail, as I don't think I ever could have stopped and I'd have the whole games in one giant chapter!**

* * *

Chapter 7 – The Bloodbath

Ivorys POV

'Ivory.. Darling..wake up..' says a soft voice, whispering into my ear.

'I don't want to.' I mumble. Today is the first day of the games..It has come along far too soon for my liking. I know it's too late to change my mind but I don't want to go.. I don't want to be in the hunger games.

'Come on Ivory you know you don't have a choice.. You have 2 hours until launch, the games start at 10am remember?' she says softly. Elena slept in my room last night, because it might have been our last night together. I stand up, walking to the bathroom and taking a quick shower.

'Just put something simple on honey.. You'll be changing into your arena clothes in the launch room so, no need to make an effort.' she says solemnly, gazing at me with sympathy written on her face. I pick out a pair of simple, black, skin tight trousers and a plain white top with long sleeves.

I step out my bedroom, and head over to the living room, sitting beside Joshua and Vincent. Elena sits on the other side of me, and takes my left hand, and I respond by squeezing hers. Joshua then looks at me, and I take his left hand with my right, giving it a comforting squeeze. Vincent soon takes Joshua's remaining hand, and that is how we sit, in silence, until Tyrin steps out the elevator, somehow not looking like a complete emotionless dick head.

He smiles sadly at us, and we all stand up, breaking hands. Elena puts an arm round me, and we all pile into the elevator, still staying silent as we reach the bottom floor of the training center. We head out those big, glass doors, and start walking towards the hovercraft port. Vincent opens the gate for us, and we all walk in. I look around and see that most of the tributes are here already.

'What's the time?' Vincent asks, frowning. Elena looks over my shoulder at her watch.

'8:25.. Hovercraft should be here any minute..' she says, I can tell that she's trying hard not to break down.

'Oh..' is all Vincent can manage. I don't blame him, I really don't because me and Josh haven't actually said anything at all. I remember the tributes we had one year, how I stood in this very spot and told the girl that she'd be home before she knew it. She came second that year. I never came back to this spot, until now.

'I love you Ivory, don't forget that. If... If anything happens to you, if you, you know, die, then, I.. Just know that we'll meet again some day.' she says. As if on queue, the hovercraft soon lands on the giant circle, marked with a H. Elena soon grabs me by the shoulders, and pulls me into a deep hug. I can't even begin to describe the thoughts racing through my head at that moment. For the first time in my life I am speechless. Elena soon lets me go, and pushes me in the direction of the hovercraft. Me and Josh walk over to the craft, and he sighs. Just as I'm about to board, I take a look back, a long enough look to see Elena in Vincent's arms, sobbing.

I don't allow myself to dwell on the thought any longer though, because I step onto the hovercraft, sitting on the seat with the words "District 5, Female" written on it. I sit down, and once everybody has taken their seats, I see who I have the 'pleasure' of spending the next however long with. Across from me is Joshua, who is looking down at the ground. On either side of him are Lia and Emi. I look to my right, to see Finnick sat there, and to my left I see Sam. Marvellous.

'Give me your arm.' I hear, coming from the other end of the craft. I see Georgia having something injected into her arm, and cringe. She then moves on to the district 11 boy she is sat next to.

'Give me your arm.' I hear from a lot closer by, as the hovercraft lifts off the ground. I look along my row, to see somebody inject something into someone's arm. I look over to see whoever it is, is sitting opposite Saffron, so I can only assume it's Eleanor.

'Give me your arm.' She says to the next person, who I can only assume to be Stuart. She soon finished with him, and moves onto the next person, who I work out to be Deena. She doesn't make a sound, and soon she is standing almost directly in front of me.

'Give me your arm.' She says, and Finnick holds out his arm. She injects it into him, and he grimaces, before she holds out her hand to me.

'Give me your arm.' I hold out my arm to her, and she quickly pushes a very large needle into my arm. I resist the urge to yelp with pain as the large, metal lump is injected into my right forearm. I allow myself to wince instead, and then frown, looking to Finnick.

'Give me your arm.' She says to Sam.

'So, must be a pretty long journey then if we're setting off this early. I'd say it's about an hour.' He says, frowning at me.

'Yeah, feel sorry for Emi, she's stuck in between district 3 and Joshua. How will she cope with nobody to talk to?' I say. Emi is close enough to us, but not close enough. If we spoke to her we'd have to speak a little bit louder, and everybody would hear us over the deathly silence that has filled the hovercraft.

'Mhm, thank god we have each other for company.' He says, and I smile, leaning against my arm rest. We spend the next hour or so simply chatting, before we feel the hovercraft touch ground.

'Well, Ivory, see you at the Cornucopia.' He says, and I smile at him, waving at him as he steps off the craft. I step off after him, and I'm quickly greeted by Jasten, can't say he's the person I want to see most in the world at this moment in time.

The second we step off the craft, we are made to walk down some stairs. To stop anybody seeing the arena then I guess. We are led through some very winding corridors until we finally reach a room labelled 'District 5, Female.'

* * *

Inside the room, is 4 crisp, white walls, a black sofa, a control pad similar to the one I have in my room, which I can only assume is for food and drink, a shower, and a table. On the table, is a large brown parcel, with a white string attached to it. I walk over to the sofa and sit down, resting my hands on my legs while Jasten opens the package.

I hear a delighted squeak, and look up to see Jasten holding out my outfit that will be for the games. He throws something at me, and I catch it.

'Put it on.' He says, so I do. I finally get a good look at what was in the package. It contained a very soft, tight and insulating shirt, in the shade of light brown, and a pair of dark brown combat trousers, with a lot of buckled pockets. They have provided me with some thick, black woolly tights to fit under them, and a pair of thick socks. There is also a pair of big, black leather boots, they look tough and capable, good running shoes.

I look up to see what Jasten is holding in his hand, to see it's a cream coloured winter duffel coat. It is very puffy, and has a hood that is rimmed with fur. Whatever arena they're throwing us into it's going to be stupidly cold, I can see already.

'You can wait to put the coat on' he says, before walking over to the control panel. Tapping something in. Quite soon, a waiter walks in holding a tray. She sets it down beside me, and I see it has a glass of water and some chicken soup.

'I thought you should have something to eat.. you might not get any food or water for days' He says, moving to sit next to me. I take a spoon and start shovelling the soup into my mouth.

'In less than 30 minutes I could be dead Jasten..' I say, looking down at the ground.

'You still have 15 minutes until you have to get in that tube, you won't die right off Ivory I know that much, you're with the careers remember?' he says, placing a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

'Yeah I know.. But I can't stand cold places. It's always so warm in district 5, because we get the warm winds from the north, and we have a lot of pollution due to all the power plants.'

'Oh really? What's in the north?' he says as I finish my soup.

'District 4, I'm guessing it's really warm there.' I say, picking up my glass of water. I take a sip out of it, and then we both fall silent. About 10-12 minutes later, Jasten gets up, and picks up my coat, throwing it at me.

'Do you want any more water before you go in?' he says.

'Yes please.' I say, putting my coat on and zipping it up.

'60 seconds until launch.' says a voice that echo's around the room. I gulp as Jasten hands me another glass of water, and put it to my lips, tipping the entire contents down my throat without a second thought.

'Okay, Ivory, it's time..' he says, looking towards the glass tube. I walk over, and step inside, waving to Jasten.

'Make me proud, girl.'

'I'll try.. tell Elena I love her, please.'

'I promise I will.' he says. 'Hold on a second.' and then he walks over to me, and pulls something out of his pocket. He fastens it around my neck, and I look down to see it's Quinns necklace.

'Where did you find it?' I say.

'It was on the floor of the Justice Building in your district, your mother found it and told me to give it to you for your token.' and with that, the glass tube lowers over my head, cutting me off from every sound but the countdown. I put my hand to the glass, and Jasten's comes up to meet it. The countdown starts counting down from 10, and my platform begins to rise.

I suddenly begin to shake uncontrollably, I take a few deep breaths, bracing myself to the cold. I'm suddenly encased entirely in dark. All I hear is the mechanical noise of the platform rising, always rising. A flash of light races through the tube, and I close my eyes, blinking a few times to get use to the new lighting.

As the platform finally reaches level ground, I look around, expecting to feel a surge of cold and snow, but instead I feel an unbearably wave of heat, and a bitter dryness. I look around hurriedly, and soon confirm my fears. The arena is just sand, as far as the eye can see, just a complete desert, no trees no features no anything, just flat out sand. I look around, too see the Lucieina is next to me. Excellent. She is also looking round, scowling at everything she sees. I see that she's wearing a pair of very thin tight trousers, and a tank top, with no coat. Confused, I look round again and see that everybody from an odd district is wearing the same winter gear as me, and everybody from an even district is wearing the summer ensemble.

I can already feel a sweat breaking out, and I have to quickly pull my hood down and unzip my coat.

'Ladies and gentlemen, let the games...Begin!' he says. A clock displays on the mouth of the Cornucopia, and starts counting down ..

* * *

60

I don't have much time, I have to think, where do I go first?

59

To the Cornucopia, Lucieina will watch my back

Elena's POV

58

I grab hold of Vincents hand, looking round at the sand.

57

I see my darling Ivory, all dressed up like she's going on a skiing trip. It breaks my heart.

Quinn's POV

56

Shit. Ivory is going to like, burn to death wearing that. I hope there's a justified reason for this.

55

Is it even legal? I should think not. I am going to make a stand about this. Why are half the tributes wearing parkas?

Tyrin's POV

54

This is an outrage! This shouldn't be aloud! I was sure I had a winner this year but the poor girl is going to die of heat stroke.

53

Well I will get her sponsors for a lot of water, and I'll get Elena to send her some summer clothes. Even if It costs her an arm and a leg. She'll not only be comfy and cool, but she'll be the most stylish tribute in the games!

Vincent's POV

52

Joshua looks scared. I can't blame him, this is definitely his last 60 seconds.

51

I wrap an arm around Elena, and we sit in silence. I feel a tear of hers sliding down my arm.

District 12 Male POV

50

50 seconds is all I have left of my life. I hope Haymitch is happy.

49

He spent the entire week focusing on Georgia. The only person I had to talk to is our escort, who really hated me.

Georgia's POV

48

I have a backpack in front of me. A few feet ahead of me is a set of throwing knives.

47

I look over to Rennae, to see her nodding at me. I'm going for the knives.

District 11 Male POV

46

There's a backpack, it's very close to me, I can reach it!

45

I'm going to win! I'm going to make Seeder proud!

District 11 Female POV

44

I am trapped in-between two careers. I recognise them as the district 1 male and the district 4 female.

43

This is the end of me. I'm so sorry mum, I love you.

Stock's POV

42

I'm not wasting time getting a backpack, or any weapons. I know I'm a target to the other tributes.

41

Marlowe, she's two tributes to my right. I look at her, willing her to look back. Run into the forest Marlowe, run to the forest.

Marlowe's POV

40

I turn round, I catch Stocks eye. He's staring in the direction of the woods, then at me.

39

Is he crazy? He'll kill us both if we don't get any supplies! Well I guess he knows best. He always knows best.

District 9 Male POV

38

I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die.

37

I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die.

Mintila's POV

36

There's a backpack right in front of me I can get it, then I run into the woods.

35

I can live off berries and plants, I can set a few snares. I'll sleep in the trees. I can do this.

District 8 Male POV

34

I'm going into this alone.. My own district partner doesn't even want to be in an alliance with me..

33

I don't think I'll last past the bloodbath.. Goodbye..

District 8 Female POV

32

Okay, I can do this. I can do this! I'm between two weaklings, I can push past them, grab that backpack.

31

It's only the little district 9 girl and the district 12 boy, no worries.

District 7 Male POV

30

Only 30 seconds to go. I might as well accept my fate. I have a broken foot.

29

So, I sit down on my podium. Looking into the camera, I mouth the word 'farewell'

Rennae's POV

28

He sat down!? What the hell is wrong with him?! Well fuck him, he was going to die anyway

27

I can see an axe at the Cornucopia. We all agreed that I'd get it, and get it I will.

Sam's POV

26

Ok, so, I grab Lia, and go. Grab Lia and go, simple as that.

25

I look to Lia, who is stood next to me, and see she's fiddling with her token. It's a small wooden ball, with a smooth surface.

Lia's POV

24

This token has always been with me. Always on my bed side table. Sam gave it me when I was born.

23

I twirl it round in my fingers, smiling, trying to forget about it. Suddenly, I feel it slip. I yelp trying to catch it, but it falls, falls onto my platform. I sigh, phew. But then it rolls off the edge of the plate. Shit.

Joshua.R's POV

22

BOOM. I look around, hearing a very loud and very deafening boom, and a traumatised scream.

21

Lia dropped her token, she dropped it, and it activated one of her mines, she just.. exploded. Right there. There are bits of her everywhere. And one landed on her brother, who is now screaming and crying, staring at the space she once was.

Ivory's POV

20

Holy shit, holy shit, oh my god. Lia is dead. Lia is dead and the games haven't even started yet.

19

I hear a dark chuckle beside me, and turn my head to see Lucieina is laughing, and she grins at me. I smile back at her, and turn my attention back to the Cornucopia.

Finnick's POV

18

Idiot girl. Well at least it isn't all that bad. More distracted tributes means more dead in the bloodbath.

17

I don't want these games to last any longer than they have to. And by the looks of this arena, it's all sand.

Emilana POV

16

Oh yay! A throwing knives set! I'll test them out on that kid who's next to me, sitting down. I don't really think he's going anywhere.

15

I'll get him in the middle of the eyes.. No bit deal!

Joshua.D POV

14

Oh my oh my. It's so hot in this parka, I think I'm going to be sick

13

It's too hot, oh no, I know my darling Deena can't cope with heat, and I can't see her at all. She must be on the other side of the Cornucopia. Fuck.

Deena's POV

12

Okay, I think I've had long enough to think. I'm going to run. Into the sand. The game makers aren't stupid. There will be some form of water.

11

Maybe it's underground. Maybe it's in a lone tree. But they will have water, and a source of wood for fires, because ever since people started dying of thirst and freezing to death.

Stuart's POV

10

So we got one dead already. Cool. My priority is getting Lucie's bow. She will die without it. Then I have to either get a sword or bow for myself so I can defend her.

9

There's one right there, right in the Cornucopia. Nice.

Lucieina's POV

8

Bow.

7

Kill.

Saffron's POV

6

I get into a running position, my eyes fixed on the spear set that lays right in the middle of the Cornucopia

5

This is going to be a very sad day for some people.

Eleanor's POV

4

Okay. Longsword. These petty people won't stand a chance. I am next of kin of the most wealthy family in my district.

3

I know they are all terrified of me, my beauty is so great that they can't even look at me without freezing, which is why I will win.

Ivory's POV

2..

Okay.. The longsword.. Right in front of me.. It's time, It's time .

1..

I'm so sorry if I die Elena, I tried to make you happy. I stop thinking, concentrating for this last second.

The claxon sounds, and I instantly launch into a run, grabbing the backpack that was in front of me. I make a b-line for the longsword, and grab it off the floor, just for a spear to fly past me. I turn round, expecting it to hit me, but it flies right past me. I turn round quickly, to see it's sunk its self into none other than Sam. I put my hand quickly over my mouth to stop myself screaming, and then look over to Saffron, who does a thumbs up sign to me.

Just then, I see the district 8 boy behind him, with a knife in hand. Without even thinking, I push Saffron out the way, and expect pain. Except I never feel the pain. I look down and instantly see why. My sword has sunk its self into the boys heart. I frown, then turn around, running over to Emi. Just as I try and bring my hand up to stop her, she has already thrown the knife. It sinks into the middle of Rennae's eyes, who has an axe in hand, and I frown, watching as Rennae falls to her knees, then falls head first onto the ground. The knife goes right through her forehead, and pokes out the other end of her head, and Emi grimaces.

'Ok fuck I'm not getting that one back.. Nasty.' How could she be so heartless? Well.. How could anybody? How could I? I just killed that boy without a second thought, and I don't even feel guilty.

'Yeah that's nasty.. ' I say, smiling at her. I look round again, to see nobody is fighting any more. All that's left is the career pack.

'I'm assuming everybody else ran off?' I shout, and am answered by a round of yeah's. We all walk over to the Cornucopia, picking up any bits of supplies we can find. We pile them all inside the mouth of the Cornucopia. Saffron sits down, yawning. Then suddenly, the cannons start to sound.

1..

2..

3..

4..

5..

6..

7..

8..

9..

10..

11..

11 Cannons.. 11 children dead in the space of 15 minutes. 11 lives lost to our hands. 11. I will remember that number for a long time.

'Hey we better fuck off for a bit so they can collect the bodies of the people we killed.' Says Stuart. The people we killed. Like the boy from district 8, Sam, Rennae, even Lia. We didn't kill them, the Capitol did. But nobody dares say it. Do you think the little girl from 9? What was her name.. Mintila? Was she killed? What about Georgia? Deena? Joshua? They could all be dead. People I spent time with, people I was friends with. What if I didn't volunteer? Would it be Quinn lying on the floor? Little Finch forced to watch her sister being brutally stabbed by Eleanor, or shot down by Lucieina?

'Hey, Mason, get a move on we 're going to go sit in the sand.' She says. I pick up my backpack, and walk over to where they're sitting. It must have been hours before they finally stop scraping bits of Lia from her pedestal, and we walk back over.

'So what are we gon' do all day?' Asks Saffron, laying in the sand inside the Cornucopia, which seems to be the only bit of shade we have. I unzip my parka, and throw it on the ground, rolling up my sleeves.

'Hey, Mason you may need that it could get cold.' says Lucieina, before turning to Saffron. 'de Rosé. I say we explore the arena while it's light, and see if it 'aint just all sand. Emphasis on the we, because you'll be taking watch, Mr.8' She says. Harsh but, it's what we agreed to.

'Odair, Mason and Traveth, one of you will be taking night watch with Saffron because you got the next lowest scores, and it's what we agreed to.' she says, and I sigh. I don't really want to go chasing down tributes so.. Yeah. I'll do it.

'I'll do it.' I say, smiling. I walk over to the supplies, and open up the medium sized backpack I got earlier. It contains four bags of dried fruits, some dried meat strips, an empty bottle, a sleeping bag, some matches, some rope, a knife, a packet of crackers and a pair of sunglasses. I lay it all out in front of me.

'Nice! Night-vision goggles!' Says Eleanor, and she goes to snatch them from in front of me. She is soon stopped by Lucieina's foot though, and she receives a very menacing frown.

'Mason risked her life for this pack, so she keeps it. You fuckers just decided to take whatever we share out from the supplies left at the end of the bloodbath. Well this backpack is Masons because she won it fair and square, so don't fucking touch anything that's anybody else's' She explains, letting go of Eleanor's arm.

'Does this mean I don't get a cut of the original supplies?' I ask.

'Of course you do, idiot.' She replies, before walking over to the supplies. I pack everything back into my pack, before walking over myself.

'Who wants the black tent?' she says, looking very bored. Both me and Emi raise our hands, and she throws it in our general direction. 'Great, you can share. Me and Syvian can take the blue tent, and Odair, de Rosé and Traveth can have the Cornucopia.' she says, nobody objects.

'Okay so, we have 14 cans of food which works out perfectly, 2 each.' She throws a can in my direction, then another, and then does the same to the next person. I have some beef stew and some apricots. I shove them in my pack.

'Who wants the sword sheath?' She says, holding up a brown leather strap with a longsword shaped piece attached to it. Both me and Eleanor hold our hands up, both clearly desperate for it. 'Okay since Traveth annoys me, you can have it Mason.' she says, throwing it my way. I pick up my sword, and slide it into the sheath, before putting it on.

'Okay I have 2 rolls of nylon string, who wants em?' Saffron and Finnick both put their hands up, and she grins, throwing it at each of them.

'Okay I'll take this backpack, we have 2 medium backpacks, 2 small and 3 large. That's One each. I walk over, and pick up a large backpack, before going back to my sitting spot and looking what's inside. More dried food, a coil of wire, a bottle of iodine, a blanket, another sleeping bag, a jumper, a torch, a first aid kid and a ball of some weird stringy stuff. Emi leans over my shoulder, and grabs it from my pack.

'Can I have this please?' she says pleadingly.

'Sure.' I say, as I actually have no other use for it. She calls Finnick over, and over he comes, and she throws it at him.

'I have some weave for you!' she says, and he grins darkly at her. Damn I think I just did something stupid. I shove my coat in my large pack,, taking out the iodine, and leave the pack there, taking the medium one with me. I stand up, walking over to Lucieina.

'So, we setting off then?' I say, looking down at her expectantly.

'The rest off the supplies will be shared among the group until the alliance is broken.' She shouts, before turning to me. 'Sorry what?'

'Are we setting off?'

'For what?'

'To look round the arena. We have like.. 9-10 hours to kill?'

'Oh. Good idea. Syvian and Traveth, Odair and Dawn, Me and Mason, those are the teams. Each explore different corners of the arena.' She says, and everybody walks off in different directions. Me and Lucieina must walk for a good 3 hours with nothing but sand, until we come across a sudden line. We look around, and we see a very dense, thick jungle. It curves round the edges of the sand perfectly. Too perfectly. We start walking towards this jungle, ready to aim and fire, when we reach it's edges. We hear a loud scream, a cannon, and then heavy footsteps, so we both dive into a bush, watching and waiting as Stock, the male from district 10 runs by. Lucieina tries to shoot but I stop her, saying it won't be worth it and that we should investigate.

We quietly stalk over to the place we thought we heard the scream, to come to a clearing. In the clearing is the still, dead body of Marlowe Aelfwine, the female from district 10. She has a throwing knife sticking out the back of her head. Lucieina walks over moving to examine the body, and I look up and around the tree's. That's when I see her, a very terrified looking Georgia sat in a tree, wearing a jacket full of throwing knives. She gently puts her fingers to her lips, signalling me not to tell Lucieina. I shake my head, an then walk over to her.

'So who do you think killed her?'

'Her district partner maybe. But he didn't have any supplies on him.'

'He probably managed to salvage like.. One knife and used it on her.'

'Good point. We should get heading back to camp,it took us near enough 4 hours to get there, and we don't even have that much until the death re-cap.' She says, so we set off.

* * *

We are the last ones to arrive at camp, and see everybody has already set up the tents and such. Emi is leaning over a pot she found, and has balanced over a fire, and is stirring some. 'Lamb and apricot soup anybody? We have bowls.' I take the soup, and head over to the tent. As I'm sat there,I notice that it is getting very very chilly.. I frown at the thought, and dig into the large bag that has been kindly put in the tent. I take out my coat, and put it on, pulling the hood up, and then get in my sleeping bag.

I'm soon joined by Emi, who seems to be freezing half to death.

'I have another sleeping bag in the medium pack, take it.' I say. She doesn't even think twice about it, just takes the sleeping bag, cuddling up in it. She leaves the small tents door open though, so we can see the death re-caps. Apparently our tents have been placed the 'correct way.'

Surely enough, the Panem symbol is stuck onto an imaginary screen in the arena sky, and the anthem begins to play. The Panem logo is soon replaced by the face of my district partner, the number 5 written underneath it. A pang of guilt goes through me, and I hold in my emotions. I'm on watch tonight, so I'll cry then. Joshua fades away, for the last time I'll ever see him, and is replaced by Sam. This means that Three and Twitch are both okay.. For now..

The next picture up is a smiling Lia, followed by the boy from district 7, who had given up before it even began. He is followed by Rennae, which earns a small whimper from Emi. Next up is both the tributes from district 8, one of them I killed myself. Surprisingly, Mintila, the12 year old from 9, doesn't flash up, but her district partner does. The next face in the sky, is Marlowe. She looks so very intimidating, nobody would think she'd have died so early on in the games.

Next up is both the tributes from 11, and Georgia's district partner, then his face is replaced by the symbol of Panem, along with the anthem, horn of plenty.

* * *

'Kill her Stuart! Come on do it! Stab her! Shoot her! Smash her brains out!' Everyone yells. We were out tribute hunting, and we came across the poor little girl from district 9, she looked so terrified. She didn't know any better than to light a fire, and Stuart saw it instantly, running towards it, thus it is his kill. He wastes no time, and drives the tip of his sword deep into the little girls heart, laughing darkly. A cannon sounds round the arena, and we all head back to camp, tired as hell. We decide that on the first night, nobody would be stupid enough to raid the careers, so we all get in our respective sleeping places. At some point in the night, it begins to snow, and me and Emi, huddled so closely together after combining our sleeping bags to share body heat, are very grateful we aren't in the Cornucopia, or out on watch.

Now I see why they gave half of us winter and half summer. Because at night its like the Arctic, and in the day it's like the desert! Eventually, after a very very long time, we both get to sleep, and I cry silent tears over the loss of my district partner.

* * *

**Again, sorry for the length! Thanks to Taralani and Pinklove21 for reviewing again3 Love you guys. Next chapter will be up whenever I finish it_**


	8. Chapter 8 - Thieves

**Okay, in my defense, I've been very busy recently, and now that school's started my update rate will die, so you'll be seeing less updates from me in the week days, but more in the weekends. Sorry for the late update but.. It will be worse from here on out :L **

* * *

Chapter 8 – Thieves

'Wake up' hisses an angry sounding voice in my ear.

'Huh what?' I mumble, pushing whoever it is away from me.

'Wake the fuck up!' I see its a girl now, and she violently shakes me. My eyes snap open, and I sit up, looking at Emi.

'Whaatt?' I say.

'Oh my god you're such a heavy sleeper I've been trying to wake you up for ages..' She says, frowning at me.

'Sorry.. What did you need?'

'It's not cold any more.. I didn't want you to overheat in that coat..' She says, frowning at me. 'I mean it's a little bit chilly but you have insulating clothes and.. I was wondering if I could borrow your coat for a bit.. Because these summer clothes are really thin and.. summery and I'm very prone to the cold an-'

'Take it!' I say, unzipping it and throwing it to her. She's right, it's a little bit chilly, so I'm thankful for my winter clothes. She quickly puts it on, pulling the hood up, and her hair curls over her shoulders, it looks very cute.

'What time is it? I ask, yawning.

'I don't know we don't have a clock. Early?' She says. 'I haven't been out side yet but I think we're the only ones awake.'

'Oh.. Well I'm not tired so.. Want to talk?' I ask.

'Sure go ahead, what about?'

'What did you and Finnick find yesterday?'

'In the Arena? About 3-4 hours in, we found like, a huge expanse of water, that stretched from horizon to horizon, but it's edge was like.. the edge of a circle.. and I think we saw some islands, with trees but I couldn't really tell. How about you and Lucie? What did you see?'

'Well.. About 3-4 hours in, We came across a jungle that went as far as the eye can see, the edge of it, like the water, was a circle. When we got there, we heard a scream, then footsteps so we hid in a bush, and then the district 10 male ran past. We went to where we heard the scream, and there was his district partner lying there with a knife handle sticking out from between her eyes.'

'Wow.. Nasty.. What did Stu and Elle find?'

'I'm not sure I didn't ask...' I say.

'Well lets go and find out!' She says, unzipping the tent. We are met by a complete wall of snow, and we suddenly zip it back up.

'Shitt I wondered why it was dark.. HELLO?' she shouts.

'EM!?' shouts a muffled voice.

'FINN!'

'EM WHERE ARE YOU!? WE'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU ALL MORNING!'

'I'M HERE! WE'RE BURIED IN OUR TENT!'

'I'LL COME AND GET YOU OUT!'

'THANK'S!'

Damn, How did that much snow manage to fall? We hear a loud cry, and a thump.

'WE CAN'T DIG IT OUT WITH OUR HANDS EM, IT'S TOO COMPACT, AND WE DON'T HAVE A SHOVEL OR ANY WEAPON THAT WOULD MAKE IT WORK..' Shouts Finnick angrily. Shit we're stuck here.

'DO YOU HAVE FOOD?'

'YEAH, A FEW DAYS WORTH.' I shout, and we frown.

'AND WATER, WE'LL BE FINE' adds Emi, frowning.

'We have water?' I say, quite surprised.

'Yeah every tent has emergency water. We should be fine in here until they manage to dig us out.'

'Dig us out with what?'

'I don't know.. Do you still have the torch in your pack?'

'Yeah I do, and I have a spare jumper.'

'Good, we didn't get any batteries though.'

'I have night vision glasses.'

'Oh, nice.'

* * *

It must be about day 4 of sitting inside this tent, with only Emi for company, when I'm awoken by the sound of shovelling. Suddenly, a tent is unzipped and in comes a very cold looking Finnick. I toss him the jumper, and he puts it on.

'It's snowed every night, and been boiling every day. It's so warm inside your tent though. We've tunnelled to your tent but be warned, it's boiling outside. Stuart build a sort of trap door system. We got some salt and a shovel from some sponsors. So, Stuart put a crate panel above the hole that now leads to your tent and put salt on it, saying it melts salt. And uh, since you've had like 3 days off, you must be well rested so you're both taking the next few watches.'

'Okay..' We both say in unison, then Emi adds 'Any deaths?'

'Not yet. It's been very quiet but the arena is just too big to find the tributes, there's 11 left.'

'I have an idea.' Says Emi, and we both lean in.

'We put some supplies like food and water out in the open, tributes who are low on supplies will try and steal them. We can take them out then!' Wow, she isn't as stupid as I give her credit for.

'Ok good, so who's left then?' I ask.

'All of us, both from 3, boy from 10, and the girl from 12.' Oh good, so Twitch, Three and Georgia are still alive.

'We should go..' I say, before standing up. Emi takes off my coat and throws it me, and I stuff it in my backpack, and Finnick gives me his jumper. We step out the tent into the ice and walk for a bit, the icy ground gradually sloping upwards until we finally reach the makeshift trap door. Finnick pushes it up before hauling himself out and holding his hand down to us.

I reach up, and he grabs my hand. I don't expect anything of him, I mean, he's only 14. But he somehow manages to pull me right out, very effortlessly, and I squeal. At first I feel a huge rush of heat, but then a wave of cold, as I fall flat into the snow. He then pulls Emi up, and she falls beside me, and then Finnick flops down in between both of us.

'Hey I didn't think I'd be spending the Hunger Games laying in the snow with two beautiful older ladies' He says jokingly, wiggling an eyebrow. I look at Emi, and she looks at me, and we both get big handfuls of snow, throwing them over Finnick. We both burst out into giggles, but then I feel a wet coldness on my cheek. I look over to see Finnick has smashed snow all over my face, as well as Emi's.

We're just about to counter attack, when we're met by some angry sounding footsteps. We stand up, and come face to face with Lucieina.

'Will you kids stop pissing about?!' she yells, pulling Finnick to his feet.

'I think you'll find I'm older than you, and I'm an adult.' I say, rolling my eyes.

'Oh really? How old are you then miss high and mighty?'

'18, 19 the coming Saturday.'

'Oh.' Is all she says, before dragging Finnick over to the camp. I get my first good look at things for 4 days. Me and Emi both gasp in unison, as we notice the arena has been split perfectly in half. On one side of the arena, it is perfect, pristine snow. On the other side, there is a dry, barren desert. The only feature I can see is the golden Cornucopia, glistening in the sun. It sits bang in the middle of the line, and is surrounded by a circle of earth. I see all the supplies are piled inside there.

'Where's your tent?' I ask Lucieina, a confused expression on my face.

'Same place as yours. Buried under the snow. Except I have a loud mouth so they found us within 15 minutes, whereas you and Dawn were completely silent. We thought you'd suffocated.' She replies.

'Oh.' is all I say.

'The sun's setting, we should probably go.' Says Lucieina, and she walks over to the Cornucopia, picking up her bow and sheath of arrows.

'Syvian! De Rosé! Traveth! Odair! On me!' She shouts, and they all grab their weapons, running off into the distance, leaving me and Emi alone. We then start to grab all the good supplies like food and water, arranging it into a tempting pile. We then go and sit inside the Cornucopia.

* * *

'So..It's your birthday on Saturday?' She says, leaning on the edge of the Cornucopia.

'Mhm.' I reply. She stays silent for a bit, counting something on her fingers.

'Oh.. That's tomorrow! Hey, maybe our mentors can give us some cake and stuff. I'm sure we both have tons of sponsors.' She says, grinning.

'Maybe so..' I say, smiling at her. We sit and talk about random nonsense for a bit, before I see a shape in the distance. I then break into a whisper.

'Hey.. Em.. over there.' I say, pointing in the direction. She turns the torch off, scuffling around a bit, before throwing something at me. I catch it, and then see it's the night-vision glasses. I put them on, and suddenly I can see almost as clearly as day light, but slightly blurred. There is definitely somebody coming towards us.. But I don't know who it is. Wait, not one person, but two people.

'Two people.. ' I say. 'One approaching from the west one from the east' I whisper, drawing my sword.

'You take east I'll take west' she says, and we both crouch, padding out into the night with velvet tread. The person is in my reach now, just a few feet away. He doesn't see me, he's too fixated on the supplies laid out in front of him. I sneak right up behind him, then hear a scream coming from far ahead. The boy jumps, and moves to run over, but before he has chance I ram my sword into his heart.

The cannon booms around the arena, and I run over to where I heard the scream. I see Emi on the ground, wrestling with somebody. Where Emi is clearly stronger and better trained, the girl is easily dodging her attacks. I walk right up behind the girl Emi has pinned to the floor, and Emi leans backwards a bit, just far enough for me to slit the girls throat. A second cannon sounds, and me and Emi head back to the Cornucopia.

We both lean against the edges of the Cornucopia, and she sigh's.

'Why is it so dark already? It was sun set only like 30 minutes ago..' She grumbles, looking up at the empty sky.

'I don't know but.. I guess the death recap will be up soon. Do you know who we killed? Because I couldn't see them properly, these glasses make everything a little bit blurry..' I ask.

'Nope I had no idea who we were killing.. Who did Finnick say was left earlier?'

'Joshua and Deena from 3, Stock from 10 and Georgia from 12.' Wait.. Shit.. The boy I killed was way too small to be Stock... So I think I.. I just killed Twitch.. I just killed my own ally.. And.. the girl, she was dodging way to fast to be Three..Do-.. Well fuck.. I just killed 2 of my 3 allies personally.. Fuck fuck fuck...

'Oh. Must have been 3 and 12 then.' She says matter-of-factly. I nod in agreement, and we sit there in silence for a while. We came into this arena, with an alliance of 8 people. Twitch, Three, Josh, Me, Sam, Lia, Rennae and Georgia. We were a team, we were friends. 5 of those 8 fell at the bloodbath. Then it was down to Twitch, Three, Me and Georgia. Then I brutally killed 2 of them. Now it's just me and Three. Three is out there somewhere alone in the arena. I hope this career alliance ends soon, because I cant just leave my only ally left.. My last breath of humanity would be forced from me if I just let her die.

Suddenly, the loud sound of the Panem anthem starts to play, and me and Emi crawl out of the Cornucopia. We look out, to see the Panem symbol. I frown, as the innocent face of Twitch comes up, the letter 3 underneath it. He soon fades away for the last time, and is replaced by Georgia. I catch my breath, before shaking my head, frowning.

'It's.. Horrible to kill a child.. I just pretend that I'm this tough girl, I pretend that it doesn't phase me.. Well.. It does. Every night I've been plagued by the dreams of people I've killed in this arena, and I'm sure those two kids will join them,even though I didn't kill them directly..'

'Em.. It's okay.. It's what you have to do to survive. You didn't volunteer for this, so you're not expected to enjoy it like the people from 1 and 2.' I say, trying to comfort her. I don't even look as the hovercraft comes to pick them up. I know that either Stock or Three are nearby, because the hovercraft don't come until nobody is in a clear 50ft radius of it. The allies are out hunting, and those are the only other two still alive.

'When the alliance breaks..' Emi says. 'Come with me and Finn.. for a little bit, until we find your ally.' She says, smiling.

'You know about her?'

'Of course.. We all know you were in the outlying alliance before.. But I knew you were in them before.. Just because of how normal you are. You don't want enemies, that's what I think.'

'Oh.. So, what happens when we find my ally?'

'We let you both go, and pray we never cross paths again, and that someone else kills you off.' She says, and I know that would sound rude to anybody, but to me it makes sense, it's sweet. She doesn't want to kill me herself.

'I don't think I could kill you or Finnick, you're both too nice.' I say, smiling at her.

'The same goes for you.. Maybe not the girl from three though.' She replies, and we smile at each other, just sitting in silence. Soon enough we hear the sounds of walking feet, and all the careers pile into the Cornucopia.

'Guessing the trap worked then?' Finnick says as he sits down. Emi nods in response, before being interrupted by Lucieina.

'Which one of you killed em?'

'Ivory killed the boy, but the girl was a bugger and wouldn't stay still, kept blocking, so I kept her occupied while Ivory snuck up behind her and slit her throat.' She says. I see that she's put the tough girl act back on, and smile.

'Nice.' She replies, and I get up. 'Where you going?'

'To get my pack.' I reply, before pushing open the little piece of wood that leads down into my tent. I walk down, unzipping the tent doors, and stepping inside. I go through my large pack, and take out some dried meat strips. They taste surprisingly bland, considering me and Emi have been living off them, plus dry fruit for the last 4 days. I rue Lucieina for not putting me in the same sleeping area as Saffron, because we were getting quite close as friends before the games. But I don't regret being with Emi, as she's quite a good friend. I hear some footsteps, and then Emi steps through the tent door.

'Have all your stuff ready to go at the Cornucopia tomorrow night, and I mean all of it, don't even leave the tent.' She says, looking over to me.

'Why?' I ask, genuinely confused.

'We're breaking the alliance tomorrow night.. There's only 2 other tributes left. That means in one death time it's down to the final 8. Family and friends interviews. But it's way too early on in the games, and due to a lot of tributes dying in the bloodbath, things are going to get boring for the Capitol. They could kill off the other two with mutts or something and then it would be down to the careers to battle it out. I don't want that, there's no way I could survive that. I at least want a chance, so we're leaving tomorrow. I hope the others pick each other off..' She says, frowning.

'So, what's the plan?' I ask.

'Well, we wait for the signal with a sponsor gift from Finns mentor, while he's on watch. Then Finn runs in and attacks them. We run with the supplies, and then Finn will join us once he's managed to shake the remaining careers. It's your birthday tomorrow, so we're thinking of getting everybody together in the Cornucopia to celebrate, when Finnick strikes. Make sure you sit closest to the entrance with the supplies' She answers, and I nod.

'Sounds reasonable.. We should do it.' I say without hesitation. She nods at this, and we both get into our large sleeping bag. I give her the jumper Finnick was wearing earlier, and put on my parka, as I realise somewhere in the night it has gotten very cold.

'I told Lucie we were going to bed so no big deal.' She says, leaning up to fasten the tent shut. I grin, nodding at her, before closing my eyes and settling down. She settles down too, and presses herself up against me for warmth, which I can't say I object to because I'm very cold.

* * *

We are awoken by a bang on the tent.

'It's your watch' shouts Stuart.

'How long has it been since we went to sleep?'

'5 hours. 1 hour per person so you have 2 hours.' He replies, and me and Emi both get up, exiting our little cave and heading over to the Cornucopia. Stuart disappears into his underground or.. under snow tent, and me and Emi sit down.

'well isn't this going to be fun..' I say, unsheathing my sword and resting it in my lap.

'Yeah..' She replies, looking down at the ground. 'So.. You're 19 tomorrow.. Why did you volunteer for that girl on your last reaping?'

'I just thought it was such a waste of a life.. She would never have survived past the bloodbath, and I'd been training my entire life for this..' I reply.

'There's something more.' She says instantly, looking right into my eyes.

'My mum made me train all these years.. Said she wanted another victor to the Mason name.' I admit, frowning. She falls silent at that, and we both serve the remaining hour and a half of our shift in complete quiet. We then go inside the Cornucopia, and I lightly kick Saffron awake.

'Hmm what?' he mumbles, swatting me away.

'Your watch.' I say, yawning, before heading back over to our tent. I'm joined shortly by Emi, who as soon as she lays down, falls to sleep, and I shortly follow her actions.

For once, I am the first to wake up, and gently nudge Emi out of her sleep.

'You know.. I always thought the arena would be a lot worse than this.' I say, yawning.

'Yeah.. But tonight it's going to get real.' She replies, frowning.

'I doubt we'll have the tent any more.. And we don't have much food on us..' I say, looking towards her.

'Yeah I know.. What we did last night.. It should keep the audience happy for a little bit but after a few days they're going to want more. The career alliance breaking up should keep them at bay for maybe 3-5 days, but after that, they'll start breaking out the mutts, they'll invite us to a feast..' She says, her words running into each other.

'Calm down Em.. It's okay don't worry.' I say, putting a hand on her back.

'Ivory we are in the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games, what on earth is okay about that?' She says, glaring at me, and I roll my eyes, standing up. 'So.. It's your birthday.. Happy birthday'

'Yeah.. thanks..' I say, frowning.

'Come on it's your birthday, we might as well make the most of the career alliance 'till tonight. Eat as much of their food as possible, destroy their items, you know, so they'll stand less of a chance.'

'They're only people.. Like us.. They have family..'

'Well.. For us to get back to our families.. We um.. They can't go back to theirs.. It's the way it is Ives, nobody can change it.'

'I know..' I sigh,and we step out the tent, making our way over to the Cornucopia. The second we get there, we're greeted by a load of cheers, and I see instantly that all the careers are wearing party hats. I burst out laughing as I see a load of open parachutes laying on the ground. I'm suddenly hit on the head lightly by something made of metal, I jump back, and a parachute lands beside me. It is shortly followed by another of similar size. I open the first one, to see a dagger in there. I gasp, then pick it up, and see the handle is encrusted with beautiful jewels. The jewels run all the way along the blade of the dagger, which seems to be tipped with diamond.

I gasp, holding it in my hand, but then open the next parachute. It contains a large piece of birthday cake, I slip the dagger in my boot, and hold up the cake, and a round of cheers erupts from the careers. They break into a happy birthday routine, and I take a seat next to Saffron, who surrounds me in a big hug.

I rest against him, and they finally stop singing, and I grin at them. I look round to see they all have cake too, but smaller slices. Finnick walks over to Emi and slides a party hat onto her head, and she grins at him. I settle down into Saffron's arms, and we spend half the day just laying there, chatting. Me, Emi and Finnick are eating as much of other peoples food as possible, and between us we've almost cleared all of the water.

As it gets later in the day, we receive more parachutes. A lot of them contain alcohol, which amuses me. Some of them contain party streamers and some contain various gifts, ranging from small stuffed animals to little bits of jewellery and make-up. It confuses me to why we're getting all this, but then I remember, the Capitol must love me. I'm one of them, and it's my birthday, and the Capitol celebrate birthdays amazingly.

By the time it gets dark, Saffron and Eleanor, who consumed most of the alcohol that was provided, are completely out of it. Saffron hasn't moved from his place next to me the entire night, as Lucieina deemed him unfit to do a watch, so he just hasn't moved. He still has his arm round me, and is now singing some random song which is presumably from district 1. He turns to face me, and grabs my face in his hands, forcing me to listen to him.

'Ivory..*hic*..Mason..' He slurs.

'From the d-*hic*.. From the day I first saw you.. I knew that there was no escape. I thought that you wer-*hic*.. You were amazing, so I convinced Lu-*hic*.. Luci-*hic* Lucieina to let you join the alliance.. and guess what? She let you!' He continues, not letting me move at all. 'And I think you should know that.. I **like** you Ivory..*hic*..'

And with that, he pulls my face down to meet his, and plants a kiss right on my lips, holding me there for a minute, before finally letting me pull free. I shrug it off as the alcohol talking, and turn to face everyone else, to see them all staring at us. I feel myself going red in the face, and avert my eyes from a now smirking Emi. Then Lucieina runs into the Cornucopia.

'Odair, Mason, it's your watch.' She shouts, and me and Finnick head outside, resting against the cold walls of the Cornucopia.

'It doesn't feel like the Hunger Games' I say, sighing. 'It feels like a group of friends hanging round together. It isn't right..' Finnick goes to answer, but is quickly cut off by the very very large parachute landing silently in front of us. Finnick quietly walks over to it, before forcing it open. We both crouch over it, I go to gasp but Finnick covers my mouth with his hand. He takes the item out of the crate, and stands up. In his hand is a very tall, very shiny and very dangerous looking trident, which looks like it's been made of solid gold. This has to be the most expensive sponsor gift I have ever seen in my life.

'Mags has sent the signal.' He whispers. 'It's time.'

* * *

**Shout outs to Taralani and Pinklove21, who have been amazing and reviewed every chapter3 Taralani has a new fanfiction up, it's a Clato friendship/ possible romance fiction, so any Clato fans out there be sure to check it out, it's beautifully written. Peace out!**

**-Bex**


	9. Chapter 9 - End of an Alliance

**Hey guys. I apologise for the late update but.. I've been terrible busy this last week, I planned to write in the weekend but I couldn't as I spent the weekend with my boyfriend, so I haven't had time to write at all. So, I decided just to sit down and bang out a chapter tonight. I'll try get the next one up as soon as possible but no promises, apologies! **

* * *

Chapter 9 – End of an Alliance

If I ever thought Finnick Odair looked his age, Those thoughts were all gone now, because as he stands, there, flexing his muscles, there isn't a man in the world that looks more terrifying, and more beautiful at this moment in time. He poises his trident to attack, and then I quickly grab my 2 backpacks that are by the entrance of the Cornucopia. I look in for Emi, to see she has her back turned. I want so much for her to turn back around, so I can tell her to move, but she's too far away. I slip my parka on, knowing it's a cold night, and stand at the far end of the Cornucopia, ready to run. I realise I'm facing the direction of the snow side, and sigh in relief. I look round, and Finnick nods at me, and then I turn back around.

I hear a loud scream, followed by a cannon, and my heart skips a beat, knowing Finnick has made a strike. I turn back around, expecting Emi to be running towards you. My suspicions are right, and she is running fast across the soft snow. I reach out my hand, and she almost reaches it, so close.. Until an arrow rips through her stomach and she screams, and so do I. She crumples to the ground, and behind her stands Stuart. He quickly whips another arrow out, to fire it at me, but Finnick smacks him in the back of the head with his trident and he falls flat on the ground. Lucieina roars, and run over to Stuart, wrapping her arms round his unresponsive body, and I run over to Emi, lifting her up by the shoulders, there's been no cannon so I know she's okay.

I take her groaning form in my arms, and run as fast as I possibly can into the snow land. I keep running until my legs fail me, and both me and Emi fall into the snow. I quickly rip my coat off, and wrap it around Emi, who is shivering uncontrollably. I look down at her stomach, and see the arrow embedded in there. I know it's worse to take it out, but I have to try and stem the blood flow. My dagger. I rip my dagger from my boot, and bring it to the shaft of the arrow, cutting quite a lot of it off, but not enough so it isn't able to be pulled out at the right time. I open my pack, and take out the jumper, before grabbing some snow from the ground, placing it on her wound.

She instantly sighs in relief, and I prop her up slightly, wrapping the jumper tightly around her frail frame, trying to stop the bleeding. I hear footsteps behind me, so I quickly draw my blade, pointing it behind me.

'Step closer and die!' I say, before realising it's Finnick. He holds his hands up, lowering his trident, before I smile and sheath my sword. 'She needs help.. We can help her.' I say, looking up at him hopefully. '..Right?' To this, he just shakes his head, giving me a sad gaze and kneeling down beside Emi. He gently cups her head with one of his hands, and moves a strand of hair from her face with his other. She smiles weakly at him, and I see she's loosing colour quickly.

'It's okay Em.. You had a good life. I'll tell your brother what you asked me to..' He says softly. She replies with a very quiet, and weak voice.

'I know.. I'm sorry I died Finn.. But I tried..' A tear rolls down her faint cheek, there isn't long left now.

'It's okay Em, you did your best.' He says, gently rubbing his thumb across her cheek.

'Tell me the story, Finn..The one you told me that night when we were kids' She says grinning at him.

'I'm not sure I remember that one..You'll have to remind me Em.' He replies, smiling softly down at her.

'The one about the boats.. and the sea..'

'Well.. One day.. Me and you, we're going to escape this whole place. Get on a little boat and ride away into the distance, not a care in the world. We're going to live from the sea, and we-' He is interrupted by the boom of the cannon, and he instantly looks down to Emi. He then shakes his head, a tear sliding down his cheek, and he gently takes the parka and jumper from her, throwing them at me.

* * *

He stands up then, gesturing for me to follow him as he walks off into the snow. I carefully take Emi's pack she was carrying, and smooth her curly hair down around her head, before leaning down and planting a small kiss on her forehead. I then get up, walking back after Finnick.

'You should take her pack.. I'm already carrying 2.' I say quietly, before throwing her pack at him. He catches it and then carries on walking.

'She didn't deserve these games..' He says as we walk further into the snow.

'Where are we headed?' I ask, yawning.

'District 3 is in winter clothes so she'll be here somewhere. ' He says, trudging along. We must have been walking for hours now, because I can see the faint outline of a forest. I look at it confusedly as we approach it, and I see it's a very beautiful looking pine forest, covered in a light layer of snow. It looks like something from my wildest dreams, it's so breathtaking.. So picturesque.. Before I walk in, I am hit with a force in the stomach, and I'm instantly winded, falling to the floor.

'Don't go in.. Things aren't always as they seem, Ivory. We should wait here a bit..' He says.

'I have an idea!' I exclaim. 'Elena! If I have any sponsor money, or Finnick, can you send us something as a sign that it's safe in that forest? If you don't send anything we won't go on.' I say, looking up to the sky. Finnick goes to speak, but is soon interrupted by a canon. I jump, and so does he, and then we both look at each other.

'Who do you think that was..?' He says worriedly, but before I have time to answer, a parachute lands beside me. I open it, to see a single piece of bread. I take it out, and feel its still warm. I look down at it, then at Finnick, before tearing it in two, holding it out to him.

'Here.. It's uh.. Home made. My mom made it..' I say, and he takes it. He looks at me, frowning.

'She's your mentor, huh?'

'Yeah uh..She's my mentor.'

'That must suck..

'Yeah..' I say, before taking a bite of my roll, walking right into the forest.

'What are you doing!' Shouts Finnick, running after me.

'Elena sent the bread, so it's safe. We gotta set up somewhere to sleep, it's real late.' I say. Hold on.. If it's late.. It was dark already when the alliance was broken.. We've been walking for at least 4 hours now.. So it must be in the early hours of the morning, but I know for a fact that the death recaps are always at 10pm sharp.. So it can't be that early. Finnick seems to read my mind, because he soon speaks up.

'They're messing with the time.. They're trying to mess with our heads, disorientate us.' He says as we walk through the forest.

'Yeah I was just thinking that. It isn't past 10pm yet, yet it's been dark for so long. We should find a tree anyway.' I reply.

'A tree?'

'Yeah, to sleep in. It will be safer.'

'What if we need to make a quick escape?'

'We won't need to. You can set snares around the tree trunk so people can't get up.'

'What about Lucieina and her arrows?'

'We won't be seen at all if I have anything to do with it, so unless you snore pretty boy, we'll be all good.' I tease, before walking in front. He jogs to keep up with me, and I grin at him, stopping at the base of a tree.

'Hold my pack for me' I say, throwing them over to him before he even has the chance to respond. I grip the base of the tree with both my hands, and before Finnick can ask what I'm doing, I'm already up about 15ft in the air, looking down at him.

'Woah spider monkey, don't get lost up there. You really think I'll be able to climb that far?' He says, and I grin at him, climbing onto a branch.

'I'll come get the packs in a minute.' I say, and I do just that. In about 15 minutes we're both sat on adjacent tree branches, tucked into our sleeping bags. The anthem of Panem booms throughout the arena, signalling it's 10pm, and we both look up to the sky as the first face fills the sky. I haven't put much thought into who died today, but I'm starting to wish I had, because then I would have had time to prepare myself for the face I see in the sky.

Saffron de Rosé, District 1. He's dead. My heart sinks, and I sigh, resting my head back against the tree trunk. The next face that I see shocks me, but it doesn't effect me, as I never really had a conversation with him. Not like Saffron, not like Emi, Finnick or even Lucieina. The face of Stuart haunts the sky for a few more seconds, before it is replaced by the beautiful, calm, happy and loving face of Emi. Now it is Finnicks turn to sigh, as he rests his head in his hands. A small tear escapes him, and he curls up into a ball, closing his eyes. I guess I'm taking first watch tonight.

* * *

About 40 minutes into my watch, I hear a snapping of twigs on the floor, and the crunching of snow. I look around, silently drawing my sword, and I lean over, gently poking Finnick with the flat side. He instantly wakes up and looks at me, so I place one finger over my mouth, signalling him to stay quiet. As a figure comes into view, I see it is Stock. He looks very tired, and very thin, like he hasn't eaten or slept in days. Even in the pitch black I can see visible bags under his eyes, and I see that he has no pack or weapon with him.

Finnick makes a small gesture, like throwing something, then gestures to the trident in his hand, and I shake my head. He isn't worth killing just yet, we have more important things to do. We watch as he passes by, and I sigh, closing my eyes. When I feel he's finally out of earshot, I adress Finnick, not opening my eyes. I feel so tired right now, I miss Elena, I miss Emi, I miss everybody. I want to get home so I can be with Quinn, I'm sure she'll make a really great friend, so it will be a shame if I die before I have chance to get to know her properly.

'Your watch.'

'Okay. We're running low on water, we should look round and see if there's any tomorrow.. Because it will be our first day without it. The days are really hot round here.' He whispers in response, and I nod to him, before we both fall into silence. When I wake up, it's not from Finnick telling me it's another watch, but from the hot sun beating down on my face. I look to where Finnick should be sat, but he's not there, and neither is any of his stuff. I quickly untie myself from the tree branch, folding up my sleeping bag, and stuffing it into the pack I left hanging from the branch I slept on.

I can't believe he didn't wake me up, and just left without me. I don't think I've ever been so mad. How can he just walk off like that? Emi told him to stay with me and he just walked off in the morning and took half our shit. I put my pack on my back, and scramble down the tree, landing silently. I look around the forest for a bit, and decide it's too hot, so I take my coat off, shoving it into my pack.

I walk about 10 yards, before I see a familiar face leaning back against a tree, fiddling with some rope. I roll my eyes, and walk over to him, sighing.

'Why didn't you wake me up?' I ask, leaning on the tree beside him.

'You looked so peaceful..' He says sheepishly.

'The real reason' I state, raising an eyebrow to him.

'I fell asleep..' He says, then raises both his hands in surrender. He fell asleep.. We could have been killed because he just..fell asleep.

'We could have been killed you know.' I say as we walk along, the sun beating down on the back of our necks.

'I know.. Sorry.' He says. We walk, and walk, and walk some more, with no sign of water, I'm starting to think that maybe there isn't any in this arena at all. We ran out of water about 2 hours ago, so we're both pretty tired, and both very thirsty. Finally, I sense Finnick give up, and he slumps against a tree. I yawn, and stand in front of him.

'There's no water anywhere..I'm so thirsty..' He says, his eyes drooping slightly.

'I know right..' I respond feebly, too tired to even speak properly. After about 20 minutes of just standing there feeling sorry for myself, I am brought back to reality, as I feel something brush lightly against my leg. Finnick instantly snaps back into action, and his eyes widen.

'Don't.. Move..' He says quietly, staring at whatever is behind me.

'What is it..?' I whisper.

'Deathlet..' he says.

'What's that?'

'One bite and you're dead before you can say ouch. Highly poisonous. They only live in and around water.. We get them in District 4. ' He says, and I almost faint. If it weren't for the fact that if I move I'm dead, I probably would have.

* * *

'What do we do?' I say, starting to shake. I don't think I've ever been this terrified.

'Kill it' He whispers in response. I gently bend down, pulling the dagger from my boot. My hand shaking a lot.

'I can't throw daggers.. Where is it?' I hiss, gripping the dagger like my life depends on it..Oh wait, it does. Shit shit shit. I can't do this.. I'm going to die.. I'm going to die.. I'm going to die.. I'm going to die..

'Where is it Finnick?!' I scream, before I realise what I've just done.. I just shouted.. He told me to be quiet..Oh god I'm going to die I'm going to die. Without thinking twice, I take off, running as fast as I possibly can into the woods, I finally find a tree, and climb up as fast as I can,wrapping my legs around the trunk and clinging on for dear life. I am met by a very thick, hearty laugh, and heavy footsteps. I hold my dagger ready to throw, hoping I'll get a lucky shot, but my eyes are filled with the sight of Finnick.

'Is it gone?' I call down, not trusting myself to let go. I receive another laugh, and he flashes me a grin. That grin.. His bright white teeth, his little dimples, that shine so brightly against his golden tanned skin.. He's so gorgeous.. It's hard to believe he's 4 years younger than me.. Not letting myself get lost in thought, I decide to respond to his laugh.

'What's so funny?' I yell, trying to make myself look frustrated. I'm just met with another laugh, and I sigh, scrambling down the tree and standing beside him. We walk along for a bit, before he finally speaks up.

'Hah, you're so gullible.' He says, snickering.

'What do you mean?'

'Ooh! Where is it Finnick! What do I do I'm so scared!' He mimics, a permanent grin on his face. I scowl at him, before I start to wonder.. Why is he making fun of me if the Deathlets are so deadly..? Wait.. hang on.

'There's no such thing as a Deathlet is there?' I moan bitterly, frowning at him. At this, he cracks up again. I roll my eyes, and bring up my fist, roughly punching him in the shoulder. He sticks his bottom lip out, and pouts at me, and I smirk.

'I found some water by the way.' he says, and I let out a whoop of joy, grinning.

'No kidding?!' I say, stopping in my tracks. And with that, he reaches into his pack, bringing out 2 full bottles of water. I grin, and then he opens my pack, showing me there's an equal amount.

'We need to wait 30 minutes for it to purify. I used some of your iodine, hope you don't mind but, I was holding your pack so you owe me.' He says, smiling, and I smile back at him as we walk back into the forest.

* * *

4 days, it must have been 4 days by my reckoning. I mean.. From all the messed up daylight in this arena, I have no idea, but we've been to sleep 4 times so I'll just say it's 4 days. 4 days is fine with me, 4 days with a very good looking boy, camping in a beautiful snowy forest. With nobody to tell us what to do and what not to do.. Disadvantages: We are in the hunger games. In less than a week, one, if not both of us will be dead, we ran out of food 2 days ago, and water is scarce, and we are under the constant threat of finding another human being, and being killed.

Once again, the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. It's been a very long time in Capitol standards, since something interesting happened in the games, so not only are we bored, but the Capitol are. And that is the worst thing that could possibly happen right now. When the capitol get bored, shit gets real, and when shit gets real, it really does get real. I've been sat around this lake now for about 2 hours. Finnick has been out getting food, as we've run out, and he bagged the first hunt. We found a spot of grass around the lake that isn't covered in snow.

Wow I love snow, it's so pretty. But after spending so much time around it I'm getting sick of it. When I was a kid, me and Elena use to spend so many hours just laying in the snow, having snowball fights and making snow sculptures. It was so much fun.. I hate to think that I might never see her again. I grew up with Elena by my side through everything, she trained me herself, and raised me, even if she wasn't my real mother. I don't know what I'd do without her, and I know she feels the same. What if my father decided to get back in touch with me? What if he wants me back? Could I really move away from Elena? Of course not. If that man wanted me back he shouldn't have given me away in the first place. I miss Elena so much..

'I miss you Elena..I can't wait to come home with you.. I love you, and Vincent. He's been like a dad to me.. I miss you both so much.. I'm sorry about Joshua, I tried I really did, but I couldn't say anything without the careers trying to kill me.. I'm sorry.. I'll be home soon, don't you worry. Whether it's in a box, or in person..' I say, a tear coming to my eyes.

'And Quinn, I know we don't know each other much but.. I know we would have made such good friends.' I place a hand on her necklace, gently rubbing my finger across it. 'Thanks for the necklace, it's very beautiful. I'll do what I can to return it to you. And tell Finch when she's older, that I tried, so she'd never have to take out tesserae and she wouldn't be chosen for the games. You tell her that. Even if I come home. You have to promise, okay? Kay.' I say, sighing. I seem to have gotten off track with my thoughts, what was I thinking about? Oh yeah.. Grass. We managed to find a nice clear patch of grass, which I've been laying on while I wait for Finnick. Speaking of Finnick, where is he?

It can't have taken him this long to find some food, I mean, come on he can hunt, I've seen him. He better bring back a lot I'm freezing. Hang on.. I swear I just heard a rustling in the bushes, stop thinking Ivory, concentrate on the sound.

…

*rustle*

There it is again, I know I heard it this time I know I did. I stay completely still, praying that whatever is out there isn't another tribute. I grip the handle of my dagger tightly, and lay completely still, not wanting to show my location to anybody who may be out there. I hold my breath, and realise that the noise has stopped completely.. All noise.

It's deadly silent.. Not a sound in the air at all.. this is it, the Capitol got bored, so they're sending mutts in to kill me. Oh god, Oh god I'm going to die, I'm going to die all alone without Elena.. Oh god oh god oh go-

**'IVORY!' **Screams a voice, and I scream loudly, my arms flailing wildly in the air. I'm not prepared for this, I can't do it.. I- That was a human voice.. I think, but before I have time to elaborate on it, a body is flying through the air, right towards me. Because I'm in such a daze, he lands on top of me, and pins me flat to the ground. It takes me a few minutes to calm down, but when I finally focus my eyes on his, I become lost in them. It's so hard to stay mad at Finnick Odair while gazing into those beautiful, sea green eyes.

'You scared me.' I whisper, lost for words. No matter how many times I tell myself he's only 14, Nothing will change the fact that this boy is probably the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

'Shh stay down..' He says, a more frantic look in his eyes. I nod slowly, and he lays flat down on top of me, his face so close to mine that I can feel his hot breath tickling my cheek.

'What is it?' I whisper, my voice barely audible.

'You know how I said there's no such things as deathlets..?' He hisses into my ear, his voice ridged with fear.

'Yeah..?' I ask, not like I didn't see this coming.

'It would appear I was wrong..'

'How wrong?'

'Very wrong..'

* * *

**Big thanks to Pinklove21 and MintyElla for reviewing the last chapter, (: Sorry again for the late update I'm super ashamed:( I need to learn how to get my timings write. (see what I did there?:D) **

**-Bex**


	10. Chapter 10 - Untimely Reunion

Chapter 10 – Untimely Reunion

Anonymous POV

Their feet pounded heavily on the floor. Branches cracked and snapped at their touch.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

They had an extraordinary sense of smell. They could smell the young from a mile away. In the dead of night. Their jet black coat made them undetectable. Their eyes a shade of coal black. They move silently now. They have come across a field. No more twigs. No more branches.

Pad.

Pad.

Pad.

They are silent, deadly.

They can smell him. He's nearby now. Through the blue in their vision, they see a spot of red. Yes, red. They see his heat, smell his blood. Feel his pulse. They creep up on him now. They are behind him. But they won't attack, they will play.

A thick, black gas fills the air around the boy. It surrounds him, engulfing him in it's silky touch. He doesn't notice, he's looking for food. He is facing them now. He is clueless. They see what he sees now. There's no escape for him.

I smile. This boy.. He will be destroyed by his own creation.

They smile too. Finally showing themselves. He sees what I see. He sees 12 sets of luminescent teeth in front of him. Stretched into a grin. Please come play with us, boy. Come and play, we only want to play.

He takes a step backwards. And another. They step forward, their yellow grins replaced by deathly darkness. He turns to run, but then a pair of teeth light up in the direction he wishes to leave. They know where he wants to go. They see what he sees.

Everywhere he turns, they are there. He does not look afraid. Why he does not look afraid, I do not understand. There's no need to be afraid, boy. A chase. They want a chase. They circle around him. They show their bright grins. He sees there is only one escape. He takes it. He runs, runs for his life. They follow. Now it is him, him whom is cracking, snapping the branches that litter the floor.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

Say his feet, they are running towards the lake, I see it now. Why the lake? He thinks he can out swim them maybe. They cannot swim. But he cannot stay in the water forever, and when he does, they will be waiting for him. As he comes into the clearing, his gaze drifts to a sleeping form in the grass.

**'IVORY!' **he screams, leaping out from in the trees, my beauties following closely behind him. Yes. They see it now.. He likes her. He wishes to protect her. He thinks of her as more than a friend. They see it, yes, they see it, and they shall play with their food. They will play and they will never stop playing. They do not like the taste of human.

They hear all, they see all. She stares into his eyes, a familiar longing in her own. I know that longing. She wants him. They will play. They will play. They will play and they will never stop playing.

'You scared me there' Says she, she who has the voice of an angel. Her soft whisper makes him loose where he is for a moment. Love shall be the death of everybody in this arena.. It killed the boy from three.. The boy from two.. It will kill her too. Only one may escape the Hunger Games.

'Shh, stay down.' He says. He is frantic. He covers her body with his. They will not attack. Only play. He wants her to run. He will run. They know. I know.

She speaks quietly. She knows. She knows they know. They know she knows. They will chase. So she speaks. They can hear. She doesn't know.

'What is it?' They smell fear. They will chase.

'You know how I said there's no such thing as deathlets..?' Yes.. There was no such thing.. Until you say. You gave us inspiration. I made your fantasy come to life, boy, and now it shall consume the woman you lust after.

'..Yeah?' She knows. She has forseen this.

'Well it would appear I was wrong.' He is scared now. He wants to protect her. They know.

'How wrong?' She asks. She is scared. Very scared. Her heart beats fast. He feels it. He feels her heart beat. He is scared. She is scared. They are scared. They will play.

'Very wrong..'

This is their time.. Their time to show themselves. A circle of bright yellow grins surround the two children, slowly getting closer. One scratch. One scratch is all they need, and she shall come home. Home to us. Where she belongs.

* * *

Ivory's POV

I look around, and all I see is bright, yellow teeth. In every direction. So bright that they even cast light onto the floor around them. The second I see them I instantly miss looking into Finnicks eyes. I know I have no time to waste laying on the floor, so I push him off me. It's easy, as I'm strong, and he wasn't expecting it. He flops on the floor, and I grab him by his hand, getting to my feet. I don't give him choice, and I drag him up, starting to sprint towards the wall of teeth.

Without thinking, I just leap over it, and drag Finnick behind with me. I hear a yelp from one of the things that is following us, and we sprint, forgetting everything apart from this very moment. Our feet pounding on the grass, our heads pounding, we just run, the wind blowing through our hair. Finnick stumbles slightly, and I have to pull him up multiple times. We tear through bushes, our clothes getting ripped to shreds, but we don't care, we just want to live. Suddenly, I feel something grab onto me with the force of a thousand men. I scream.

Not letting go of Finnick, I fly through the air. The figure that holds me is now my life line, as we three run, we have been pulled in a completely different direction. I have no idea what's going on. I can't see anything, all I feel is this figure, pulling me away from them. The figure stumbles slightly, and falls to the ground, causing me to loose my grip on Finnicks hand. Before I have chance to find it, I'm being pulled up again, and I'm whisked far away from that spot in less than a second. Somewhere in the distance, I hear a loud scream. Finnick.

'FINNICK!' I scream, not caring who hears me as I fight against the strength of this person. 'FINNICK!' I scream again, but it's no use, I can't break free. We come out the trees, I think, and the person holding me throws me onto the ground. I hear a splash behind me, and a booming voice shouts to me.

'GET IN THE WATER!' I don't pay attention. Finnick, I have to get to Finnick.

'FINNICK!' I scream, running blindly back into the forest. 'FINNICK!' I scream for a fourth time, looking round frantically. I hear him before I see him, and soon a very strong force is grabbing my arm, dragging me backwards through the forest. That's when I see them. No more than a metre away from my foot is a set of yellow teeth, gnashing out, trying to bite me. I scream, and let Finnick pull me away. A flash of light pops before my eyes, and I barely have time to see the large, yellow claw swipe in front of me. I don't have time to see where it landed though, because everything goes black.

Before I fade away, I have just enough time to hear a voice in the back of my head, slowly echoing around.

'IVORY!'

* * *

'Yes but she's going to be okay, right?'

Huh..? Who will be okay..? Was that Finnick?

...Finnick.. I sit up straight, not sure of my surroundings, and reach out in front of me. My fingers clasp round somebodies shirt, and I pull them over to me frantically.

'Finnick?' I say, my eyes barely adjusting into the darkness. An unfamiliar voice replies to my plea.

'No.. He's sleeping.. I'll wake him for you.' Who is that..? I quickly let go of his shirt, and he walks all the way over to the other side of the island.

Wait.. Island? I look around, and see that we are in some sort of small camp, on a little island completely surrounded by water. All I see on the other side of the water, is various sets of those yellow grins, surrounding the island completely. I move, aiming to get up, but a surge of pain shoots up my leg, and I whimper in response.

'Shh shh.. It's okay.' A figure comes out of the darkness, leaning down beside me, and wrapping two very warm, and very strong arms around me.

'It hurts Finnick..' I whimper, resting my head on his chest. I've no idea how I let myself become so vulnerable around him but.. He's just so irresistible. Would Emi be mad at me? I don't know.. Probably. She made it quite obvious how she liked him. But we're nothing more than friends. We just have been pushed closer because of the situation.

'I know.. Shh.. Go back to sleep..' He mutters into my hair, and then I realise how tired I really am. I feel terribly weak, and very worn down. I do as he says, and I soon find myself drifting off into his arms, feeling like there's nothing that could hurt me in this moment.

* * *

'I have no chance anyway..' says a quiet, female voice.

'I have nobody to go home to.' says a stocky, male voice. I recognise it as the person who I woke up to.

'Well, I will be a victor, to protect my families honour, but I guess I can spare bringing her to 2nd place. She seems a worthy opponent.' Now that voice I recognised, considering I spent a lot of time around it before Finnick broke the alliance. But what I wonder is.. What is Eleanor doing here? More importantly, why is Three here? She's the only female left as I doubt Lucieina is here and Eleanor is here.. Wow..

'So it's settled.. We help her.' Says Finnick and everybody mumbles in agreement.

'Help who?' I mumble, my face still buried in Finnicks chest, and I settle back down into him. He gently kisses the top of my head, and whispers into my hair. His breath is so warm, so settling.

'Nobody. Is your leg okay?'

'No.. It hurts.' And hurt it does. I open my eyes, to see that me and Finnick are sat leaning against a tree, and in front of us are Three, Eleanor and an unfamiliar looking man. I stare at him for a moment, and he stares right back, before catching onto my cluelessness.

'Stock.' He says. Oh, yeah. Shit how did I forget about him? It must have been all the stress of the last few weeks.

'Oh.. thanks.. ' I say, frowning. ' I look down at my leg, to see the bottom of my trousers has been cut up, and has a fresh, white bandage wrapped around it tightly.

'So.. What happened to my leg? And where did you get the bandages?' I ask, not caring that me and Finnick are getting some odd looks.

'Those little fuckers got you before we could get you in the water. You were being stupid and were trying to run back into the woods to get Finnick, even though Finnick was already in the water.' Replies Stock, looking at me with a concerned expression on his face.

'But.. Finnick got lost in the woods! I saw it myself!' I say, leaning forward, and instantly regretting it. A sharp pain runs up my leg, and I fall back into Finnick, who wraps his legs protectively around me. Stock shakes his head at me, resting a hand on my thigh.

'These.. Whatever they are, Deena reckons they release a strange hormone, like uhm.. What was it?' he turns to face Deena for a brief moment, addressing his question to her.

'Evaporated Nightlock juice.' Says Three, looking up from her book, and pushing up her glasses. Hold on.. Book..? Glasses?

'Book? Glasses?' I say, staring at Three. Before Three has a chance to speak, Eleanor butts in.

'Me, Stock and Finnick are good on supplies, and we had a load of sponsor money. Deena's mentor hasn't sent her anything, and she's bored as hell so we thought, why not. So we asked what she wanted then told our mentors to send it her.' She explains, and I nod.

'Oh, nice. Elena sent me a lot of stuff, I'd be surprised if I had any sponsor money left. The thing about having a birthday in the arena. I was surprised I had any sponsors in the first place.' I say.

'If I could have anything in the world.. It would be my bear.' Says Eleanor, sighing.

'A bear?' Questions Three, raising an eyebrow at Eleanor.

'Yes, it's a very expensive bear I've had from when I was just a girl. My mother gave it to me.' She replies.

'Why is it so valuable to you?'

'Well shortly after my mother died, my father seized control of everything. He forced me to split up with my girlfriend and set me up in an arranged marriage with the mayors son. I refused, and was outcast from the family. The bear symbols the end of my life. If I become a victor, this shall signal the beginning of my second life.' She finishes, clasping her hand round the necklace she bears around her neck.

'If you don't mind me asking.. How did your mom die?' Asks Stock, his voice devoid of any signs of pity.

'She died two years ago, giving birth to my little sister Marigold.' She replies, sighing.

'Oh. You said you had a girlfriend? Like... A girl best friend or..'

'No.' She cuts in. 'A girlfriend. I was in a relationship with a girl.'

'Oh..' Says Stock, sighing.

'So.. Who was your arranged marriage to?' Asks Finnick.

'Didn't I just say? The Mayors son.' She retorts, rolling her eyes.

'Yes but what was his name.' Says Finnick coolly, but I can tell he isn't feeling cool. His grip on me tightens a little, and I instantly realise he doesn't do well with people being rude to him. Eleanor looks hesitant, looking down at the ground, then she looks me straight into the eyes.

'de Rosé.'

'You mean..?

'Yes.' she says, and I frown.

'Why did you both volunteer then..?'

'His mother wanted to get back at my father, for cancelling the marriage. So she sent him into the games to make sure I didn't come out alive. Little did she know that father had disowned me from the family, so it wouldn't affect father at all. She sent her son to die for nothing.' She says coldly now, venom in her voice.

'Mrs. de Rosé is a poisonous woman.' And then we all go silent.

'Well, enough probing about my life. What about you, Deena?' At the mention of her name, Deena stops reading, seeming to have not heard the question.

'Sorry what?'

'Your life, tell us about your life.'

'Oh.. Well..My parents died when I was young so..I grew up with my uncle.. I met Joshua when I was 6. We were forbidden to be seen with each other, as we were from the only remotely rich place in district 3, and he was poor. My uncle and his best friend were very insistent on making sure I was brought up to be successful, and wanted to make sure I had the best future possible. We lived in victors village, we ate the finest food in our district, I got the best education, everything was perfect. I even started seeing Joshua behind their backs last year. We came to be soul-mates. There isn't a thing we don't know about each other. Or.. didn't.' She says, pausing for a breath. Everybody is silent now, hanging onto her every word.

'My life was perfect in every way.. I was beautiful, well fed, popular, intelligent. I was a definite candidate to be sent to station 9. It was perfect. Until I was reaped for the games. As I walked up there, Joshua shouted out for me. I resisted crying, because I knew I needed to seem worthy for sponsors. I went up, said my name and looked proud to be representing my district. And then he called Joshua's name. It was like the world collapsed around me.' She starts speaking quietly now, her voice becoming noticeably shaky.

'I choked out what sounded like a cry, and he didn't hesitate to run up to the stage, embracing me. We just stood there on stage, hugging and crying. The whole district knew about us now. A rich girl and a poor boy, stood in front of them, expressing their friendship. My name was ruined but, I didn't care. In fact, I cared that much that I pulled away from him, and then pulled him down to me for a kiss. And well, you know what happened from there..' She says, sighing. Everybody just sits in silence. Complete silence. Watching her speak as tears roll down her face.

'I just.. I just wish I knew how he died or.. Who killed him. Just so I could get my revenge. Or die trying.' She says. Well.. Shit. This isn't good. Eleanor looks at me, I look at Finnick, and Finnick looks at Eleanor, and then back to me.

'What..?' Says Three, a sliver of uncertainty in her voice. 'Is there something you're not telling me?' She asks.

'Emilana held him down.' Says Eleanor, looking down at the ground. At the mention of Emi, Finnick tenses instantly, gripping me rather tightly.

'And.. Iv-..' She continues. 'Ivory dealt the finishing blow.' Three stops in her tracks. And by stops, I mean stops. She stops mid movement, stiffening. She stops breathing. She stops blinking. She just stares blankly ahead of her. Just when I think she's going to sit back down, she's coming at me.

'YOU KILLED HIM!.' She screams. I see it then. In her hand is a very sharp looking, jewel encrusted dagger. My very sharp, jewel encrusted dagger.

'NO!' screams Finnick, but it's too late. She's already upon me. She looks tall, elegant. She also looks powerful. Straddling across me. Time starts to slow. I see Eleanor and Stock spring to their feet, in slow motion. They rise, and so does her hand. I feel somebody bending over me, and a sharp tug at my shoulder. Everything is silent. The only thing I hear is he sound of my own breath.

In.

Out.

In.

Out.

I feel a burning, flash of pain as the knife enters me, If there really is a hell, than this is it. I hear the squelch, as the knife buried its self deep inside me, tearing apart my stomach. I feel pain. All I want to do is scream, but I can't. I open my mouth, and all that comes out is a small whimper. Somebody is looking down into my eyes, and I look back. At that moment, it feels like it's just me and him, me and Finnick. We lock gaze. His eyes and mine, stuck to each other in what feels like forever. Why can't this moment last forever more.. Tonight, eternity is an open door, as I look into his eyes. I feel my life, rushing towards me. Euphoria. Forever until the end of time, forever. Only you and I. This is what love feels. I know it. We're all alone in our own universe. I feel alive.. I feel.. happy.

Then nothing.

Nothing at all.

I grip onto her shoulders, trying to push her back, but it doesn't help. The knife enters me time and time again. But I feel no pain, only emptiness.

'I didn't know who he was..' I whisper. But she doesn't hear me. She just stabs, stabs and stabs. I feel feint. I have lost Finnicks gaze. I feel a great weight being lifted from me, and I sigh at the relief. But at that moment, it all comes back. All the pain. All the sound. I scream. Three is no longer on top of me. She is nowhere to be seen. I have Finnick and Eleanor on either side of me.

'What do we do!?' She shouts, her hands shaking, and a very wild look on her face.

'I don't know! I don't know I don't know I didn't do first aid. I don't know what to do, what if she dies?!'

'Well don't ask me!' I feel a drop of water fall onto my face. At first I think it's somebody crying, but then I feel another drop of rain hit me. Soon, we are under a full downpour. A parachute makes it's way down to us, and it contains some bandages and anti-septic wipes.

'How the fuck is that going to help?!' screams Finnick as he rips open the parachute. Then I see what I never wanted to see. Eleanor looks Finnick right in the eyes, and shakes her head, frowning.

'No.. No.. No no no.. No..' Says Finnick. He is shaking. No.. no I don't want to die..

'Finnick..' She says, sighing. And he shakes his head, starting to pull up my shirt. He grabs an anti-septic wipe.

'This is going to hurt Ivory..' He says, running a soft finger along my cheek. I just stare up at him, too tired to do anything. When did I get so tired? I have no idea. I smile up at him, and he runs a wipe across one of my wounds. I instantly cry out in pain.

'Shh, shh it's okay. It's okay Ivory don't cry.' He repeats this over and over again, every time I cry out, and every time he calms me down with soothing words. He then wraps my torso in bandages, and props me up, resting my head in his lap. He softly strokes my hair, and I look down. What meets my eyes shocks me terribly. How..? Did she really do that much damage?

The bandage on my torso is completely bright scarlet red, covered completely in blood. Considering Finnick only put the bandage on about 5 minutes ago, I must be bleeding it out quite bad. This is why I feel so tired.

'If she doesn't pull through this, you're dead.' I hear Stock mumble in the background. Oh god.. I'm so confused. I have no idea what happened. I just said that.. and then she.. then.. Wow I'm tired. I snuggle back into Finnicks lap, and close my eyes. A little nap can't help. Wow it's very warm..

'Ivory.. Don't you fall asleep on me, you might not wake up.' He whispers, him raking his hand through my hair. It's very soothing.

'I'm tired Finnick..' I say. This is the Hunger Games.. I have no chance now. Not with these injuries. 'Let me sleep..'

'No Ivory you won't wake up again. You need to win.' He says, cupping my face in his hands and looking right into my eyes.

'Finnick.. Let me go.' I say, and lift my hand up, searching for his own. He takes my hand in his, and I smile up at him.

'I don't want to let you go..' He says, and I hear Eleanor stand up. I don't look though, I'm too busy gazing into his eyes. Eleanor makes her way back over, and places something on my chest. I bring my hand up, and feel the handle, realising that it's my dagger. I smile at her, before going back to Finnick.

'Win for me, okay?' It's all getting fainter now.. It's just like falling asleep..

'I can't promise that..' It's so peaceful, so.. happy.

'Promise me Finnick.. Promise me.' I whisper. My eyes are starting to droop now. I yawn lightly, snuggling further into Finnick.

'I promise.' Everything is hazy, it's all escaping from me. All I feel is a dreamy bliss.

'On the victory tour, tell Elena I love her, okay?'

'I promise..' He says. I can hear his voice is starting to crack.

'Goodnight Finnick..' I say, my voice barely audible.

'Goodnight, Ivory.' He replies. I close my eyes, and take a deep breath, exhaling happily.

* * *

_**BOOM.**_

* * *

**Heyy guys. If you recognize some lyrics here it's because I was listening to Euphoria and I thought it fit with the moment. I don't remember who reviewed but I'll shout you out in the next chapter. 3  
edit: I edited some spelling mistakes from this chapter that I just noticed!x3 **


	11. Chapter 11 - As She Fades

**Heey guys. Sorry for the late update. I had 3000/4000 words of this chapter written by Saturday night, but Sunday I was busy and I had school yesterday. I planned to update it last night but I got terribly ill. However I took the day off school today and managed to finish it! ^-^ For those who wonder, after this chapter the rest of the story ****_SHALL_**** be in Finnick's POV which is why I didn't include it in this chapter :D Enjoy.**

* * *

Chapter 11 – As She Fades

Elena's POV

'Ivory dealt the finishing blow.' Idiot. This girl is an idiot. If that girl attacks my Ivory she could ruin the whole plan! Vincent taps snakes an arm round me, and squeezes my side. I know that when Ivory 'dies' I have to act like I never saw it coming but.. If this girl touches my girl I won't be able to control what I do. Poor Vincent doesn't know anything, and it will be the hardest to convince him I'm upset.

Vincent knows everything of me. Every aspect of my personality. He can see right through a lie. All that, on top of the fact it will be painful for me to lie to him. I love this man, with my heart and soul. For the last 5 years, I have spent every minute of every day with him, and he has been like a father to Ivory.

Everything is so silent in the control room right now. If a feather fell to the floor, you would hear its impact. Every mentor is staring at the screen, eyes wide. My eyes scan across to district 3, and I see that Beetee and Wiress, the only living victors for district 3, are holding hands, and muttering between each other. I feel for the pair. Everybody here knows that the 'Uncle' and 'Uncles best friend' from poor Deena's speech is her two mentors.

'YOU KILLED HIM!' Shit. I barely have time to blink before the girl is on top of Ivory. I let out a yelp, and Vincent squeezes my hand in reassurance, and I curl up to him. It's all I can do not to scream. Ivory can easily push her off. She has the dagger I sent her.

..Wait. The dagger.. I remember.. When she was dressing her leg, Deena took Ivorys dagger out her boot to keep it safe. She has Ivory's dagger..

'She has her dagger..' Mumbles Enobaria from across the room. Everybody mumbles and nods in response, and leans back in to the screen. I lean forward too, and turn my attention back to the screen, just in time to see something I really shouldn't have seen.

The knife comes out of my little girl, blood stained, and goes back in. Over and over, in and out in and out. My poor baby girl. I think I'm going to faint. I lean back in my chair, and grip on to Vincent. He gasps in pain, and I look over to see that my nails have drawn blood in his arm. Sorry Vincent. He pulls me into a tight hug, and I let him, resting my head on his chest. He strokes my hair softly, like he always does when I'm upset, but I don't respond. I just stare, gazing motionlessly at the screen.

'Goodnight Finnick..'

'Goodnight Ivory..'

A cannon rings out across the control room. It is eerily silent. Vincent's grip tightens significantly, but I ignore it. Nothing can stop me from loosing control at this moment. I scream, louder than I've ever screamed before, my tears rolling freely.

Vincent's POV

The second the cannon sounds, a pang of sadness rings through me. The girl I have loved as a daughter for 5 years, is now dead. But I only have thoughts for one person right now, and it is Elena. I knew she'd react badly to Ivory's death, but I didn't think that she'd react _this_ badly. She screams, a high, deafening, blood-curdling scream. I barely have time to think before she pushes herself up, sending a ton of sponsorship forms flying into the air, smashing glasses. I rush over to her, propelling myself from my seat and wrap my arms tightly around her.

'NO!' she screams, struggling against my sheer force. I may be about 20 years older than this woman, but I'm certainly not 20 years weaker. This may be wrong to some, but I love her, and I will not let her break. It's my job to hold her together.

'NO!' She screams again, her voice broken by the sobs that rack her body. She can't stay here any more. I look around, and see that every mentor that had a tribute in these games, had come to witness the death of Ivory Mason. And every single pair of eyes is trained on my fiancé. Apart from Beetee and Wiress, who's eyes are still glued to the screen.

Beetee's POV

Deena you stupid girl.. I taught you better.. You have just ruined 18 years of careful planning.. everything I have been working for your entire life. You just ruined it in one, vengeance filled moment. I guess you are not to blame.. You couldn't have known any better.

I don't even pay attention to the scene that is unfolding behind me, because you are still alive. Yes, the Mason girl is dead, but I will get over that. But you Deena, you need to come home. The boy, Finnick, he sits by the girls dead body, cradling it in his arms. He doesn't cry, just sits. The other male, Stock. He stands behind you. He holds both of your arms up, and he's whispering to you. I can't hear what he's saying, because of all the commotion back there, but I'm sure it's not nice.

Some people may say that Ivory Mason came 6th, but did she really? Because my niece.. My beautiful niece, she died the second she plunged that dagger into the girl from district 5. I increase my grip on Wiress's hand. I don't know why it's so soothing to have her here, but the love and support of my best friend really helps. Me and Wiress, we raised little Deena from a child, when my brother and his wife were both killed in a horrific accident. 10 years of work, for nothing.

I watch as the female of district 1 walks over to Deena. She looks her in the eye. From what I've seen of this girl, she hasn't been anything special. The average career. But right now, I see a glimpse of her humanity. She unsheathed her blade, and points it to my nieces throat.

'Any last words..?' she says, a very bored expression on her face. But I see past it. She is just putting on a mask, a daughter of district 1 never tells the truth through her expressions.

'Yes.. Uncle Bee, Auntie Wire, I love you, and I'm sorry I couldn't come home.. Don't forget to feed Percy.' Ah.. of course.. Percy. The small chicken I got her for her 14th birthday last month. She cared for that animal so much.. It gave her a sense of belonging.

And with that, district 1 draws her blade across Deena's throat, and my screen goes black, replaced by the sepia image of Deena Evereth.

Quinn's POV

I never thought that it would all end like this.. Finch would have had such a good life.. She would be well fed, well educated. I would have had a friend. Not just any friend but a rich and famous friend. My life would be so perfect. Just me, Finch and Ivory.

That is the reason why I don't even Flinch as the girl from district 1 kills Ivory's murderer. In fact, her death fills me with a sort of gratitude for the district 1 girl. I pick up the television remote, and change the channel, just in time to see a 'shocking story' on a news channel. The image on screen shows a grown woman, being dragged out of a very official looking building by an older man, with greying hair. She is screaming bloody murder, her tears falling freely over her cheeks. Her dark auburn hair is messed up, and make-up streams down her face.

Surrounding the pair, is a swarm of paparazzi, taking photos and shouting questions. The man who's holding her doesn't seem to notice though. He's just staring into her eyes, whispering in her ear as he leads her away. Seconds later, a very large looking man, with bright yellow hair and pale skin, steps out into the square. The reporters instantly loose interest in their target, and start crowding round him instead.

The man waves them off with ease, he knows how to work the cameras, and the many reporters and fans obey his every command. They follow him obediently, and he walks over to the source of their previous infatuation. I don't hear what he's saying, as the annoying commentators are speaking over him, but I see he's speaking to the woman, placing a hand on her shoulder.

'And what do we have here? Our newest game maker, Plutarch Heavensbee, is consoling this years district 5 mentors! How touching.' Exclaims one reporter.

'Yes, it would appear the female mentor, our own Elena Mason, was the mother of Ivory.' Stresses another, his words barely recognisable through the shouting of the reporters. I pick up my television remote, and change the channel, settling down in the rough sheets of my bed, and pulling my teddy bear close to me.

'So, Mrs Mason, how does it feel to know that your tribute got so far this year?' Shouts one reporter, practically throwing his microphone at Elena. I'm surprised to see that the woman does not respond, and instead buries her head into the older man's chest, who pulls her closer.

'That would be Miss Mason. And, she is not in a fit state to speak right now.' Replies the man, shaking his head.

'Vincent! Is it true that you and Elena are in a romantic relationship!?' Shouts another, pushing to the front of the crowd.

'Yes, as true as it has been for the last 5 years.' He replies.

'Is it true that you're married!?'

'No. But we are engaged.' He says, smiling to the camera. I must say, even though he has slightly grey hair, and looks like he's getting on a bit, he is rather handsome.

'How does it feel to be engaged to somebody 25 years younger than you?' Questions yet another reporter. I feel so sorry for this man. 25 years? That's a bit dodgy but, I guess age is but a number. At least that is what I'll be trying to tell myself as I walk down the isle.

I know Thomas is a nice man, but he's 33 years old and I'm 18. I only accepted his proposal as it would benefit both of our families, and I'm pretty sure he isn't too happy about it either. It would help me a bit if he could improve in the looks department but.. eh, beggars can't be choosers. Damn, it's thundering outside. Thunder means rain, and lightening. And a very awake Finch. Crap, I only just got her to sleep.

Sure enough, about 5 minutes later I hear a soft whine coming from the next room, and then my door slides open.

'Quinny I'm scared.. Can I come and sleep with you?' She says, looking up at me with those big, adorable eyes. I pull back my blanket, and she instantly hops in curling up beside me. I flick the channel, not wanting to go back to the games now Finch is here, but of course every channel has something to do with the games. So, I stop at a channel that is showing the death recaps. This is okay, I guess, it only has pictures, and talking. It doesn't show the bloodbath victims though, which I'm thankful for, and does it in death order, rather than district order. About 45 minutes into the program, Ivory's picture flashes up on the screen.

_Ivory Mason_

_District 5_

_Training Score : 9_

_Day Died: 11_

_Placing: 6__th_

'Quinny, why is the nice lady on the TV again?' Asks a very tired sounding Finch.

'Because Finch.. The nice lady has gone to heaven now, so the TV has to tell everybody.' I reply, looking down at her for any signs of reaction.

'Oh, okay.' She says, and settles back down into my side.

_Deena Evereth_

_District 3_

_Training Score: 5_

_Day Died: 11_

_Placing: 5__th_

'She's pretty..' Mumbles Quinny as the district 3 females picture appears. I look down at her, running my fingers through her hair. And I reach for the remote. I press the off button, and the screen fades to black, eliminating the last speck of light in the room.

'Yeah, she is.' I mumble, before closing my eyes, and drifting to sleep.

Eleanor's POV

'For goodness sake calm down. She died the second she volunteered. They all did. It's your own fault for getting so attached to her.' I say, rummaging around in my pack for some cloth.

'Hey, pass me her jumper. I need to clean my sword.' I say, and he instantly glares at me.

'I guess not..' Jeesh, some people can be so rude. I have that little girls blood all over my sword now, it's nasty. Thankful for my many sponsors though, because I look up and see a parachute floating down towards me. It lands neatly on my lap, and I open it up to see a packet of wipes in there. I blow a kiss to my sponsors, showing my gratitude, and start cleaning my sword. Ever since the hovercraft came and took away his 'precious Ivory', he's just been curled up, leaning against a tree.

He hasn't cried though, so I'll give him that. I've no idea what he saw in her anyway. I'm clearly much more beautiful, sophisticated and intelligent than she ever was. I have bright, soft, stunning blonde curls, and she had straight, dull black hair. I had perfect, porcelain skin, and she had off white skin. I had large, bright, crystal blue eyes, and she just had blue eyes. I am perfect and she was not, so why did Finnick like her and not me?

He was far too stunning for her anyway. Perfect people belong with each other, so they have equally perfect children, and will increase the population of beautiful people in this world. It's a shame only one of us can leave this place. If it wasn't for Saffron we would have made quite a good couple. I leave a few minutes to scan my eyes across his gorgeous, shirtless body.

Yes, it's a bit weird for an 18 year old lady to be having such lustful feelings for a 14 year old boy but.. I mean just look at him. I walk over to him, and sit beside him, resting my back against the same tree, and reflect on what just happened.

I'm not entirely sure why I felt the rage I felt when Ivory died, but I guess it's because I promised that I would get the girl to second in the placings, and failed. I can't stand to fail. So.. If it was just for that, why did I even let myself show humanity as I killed Deena? Why did I let her have last words, and why did I hesitate when she apologised to her uncle? I knew getting into a non-career alliance would soften me.

Fuck it.. I don't even care any more. I'm tired. I curl up into a ball, and whisper my goodnight to Finnick, before falling to a very light and dreamless sleep. Stock can be on watch when he gets back from hunting food.

Stock's POV

As I approach the camp, I soon come to a realisation. There's only 3 people in the way of me returning home, and I'm in an alliance with 2 of them. Everybody thinks I'm some physical wonder, but it's only because I'm stupidly strong, and I can lasso just about anything.. Of course I can. I come from the god damn cow district. That's why the career's wanted me. I'd sooner die than become a traitor to my own district, and I said it right to their faces.

Truth is, I only got the 11 because the game makers weren't really paying attention, so I cut off some dummies heads, manually put a few arrows in the bullseye so it looked like I was some next archery wizard, and then made a loud noise to get their attention. They're as stupid as they looked, and thought I was dangerous. I could never kill another man. It troubles me to even kill the cows back home.

I always had to get my dad to do it for me, while I'd sit and cry in my room, pinning up yet another picture of me 'favourite cow' to the wall. I use to get very attached to the animals, and then my dad would just slaughter them. Eventually I use to take a picture of me and the creature a few days before it died, and pinned it on my wall. It became a tradition. Now my wall is just full of pictures of me and now dead cows.

I don't know whether to go back to the 'camp', get some better supplies and then take off on my own, or just never return.. It's a hard thing to decide. Eventually I decide to just leave, it would be easier for everybody. I find a sturdy tree to climb up, and have a bit of a think. Today has been so overwhelming for me. I was getting very emotional over the two girls life stories... It was so heart breaking.. Then the love.. the heart break.. the sadness that followed while Ivory was dying.. The way they gazed into each others eyes, like not even the biggest, most powerful steed may separate them. The words they said to each other. It was everything I could not to burst out crying from the display of raw motion.

The next thing that made me choke up, and 'go hunting.' (for a walk to clear my head) was Deena's final words.. She apologised to her uncle and his best friend.. like her dying had done them wrong.. Even in her dying moments she was still trying to live up to somebodies expectations, which is why at these times, I'm thankful I have no family any more. Jesus Christ I'm tired.

It would be an overstatement to say that I miss my family. They weren't anything special. I 'grew up' in a rather large family. I had three brothers, two sisters, my uncle, both my grandparents, my parents and me living in the house. I mean, you'd think we'd have to have a pretty big home, to house all those people under one roof but, we didn't. Our house was teeny. My parents slept in the only bedroom, my grandparents slept in the dining room, my uncle slept on the sofa, and me and my 5 siblings slept in the cold attic, on a small, dusty mattress.

I never really got on with any of them, to be honest. I was the oldest sibling, and both my parents were unable to work so.. I was counted on to provide for the family, working on a ranch with my uncle and younger brother. One day, I was out on the ranch alone. It was late at night but we'd been struggling for the past month. I only get paid on the last Friday of each month, and this month had been a 5 week month, opposed to the usual 4. Late into the night, I was approached by the ranch owner, who informed me I had to visit the mayor.

I sat down in his office and he threw a teddy bear at me. I instantly recognised it as my brothers. He calmly explained to me that my uncle had fallen asleep while cooking, after working a long day, and the house had burned down, killing everybody inside it. For the last 4 years I've been living in the bunk room at the ranch. Sometimes I feel guilty that I showed no remorse for the loss of my family but, I just guess I learned to live with it. Being sad won't bring them back. At least I have nothing to loose in this competition. My death will be forgotten, just as quickly as it happened.

Lucieina's POV

I sincerely hope that those two cannons were for Traveth and Odair. My only two threats in this game. Girl from three, I can easily kill. Boy from 10, he has no chance. I want Mason as my final challenge when I win this, and I am willing to protect her until the end just so I have the pleasure of killing her myself.

I received yet another sponsor gift , and I must say, everything is looking rather expensive this games. Stu's bow, Mason's dagger, Odair's trident.. All very expensive and jewel encrusted. I'm very pleased with my gift, and I guess I earned it from Enobaria, for not showing emotion at the death of my mate. I miss him, of course. This island is very alone without him. After Dawn, Odair and Mason took off, I managed to haul Stuarts unconscious form all the way to the far side of the arena, with the help of Traveth. We hauled him through the water, as we'd gone to the sunny side of the arena. We were all in summer clothes so, it made sense.

We came across a small island not far out into the water, so we set up a temporary camp there. I was very angry that Enobaria didn't send me any sponsor gifts to care for Stu, but he was unconscious the whole time. About an hour after we set foot on the island, the third cannon of the day sounded. I immediately ran over to Stu and noticed he wasn't breathing. I didn't scream, I didn't cry, no. Instead I just grabbed Traveth's arm and walked away, letting the hovercraft pick up his body – After I stole his bow, of course.

About 3 days later, we came across the boy from 10. Eleanor grabbed her stuff, and told me that she wanted to be the one to kill him. Said she had some sort of vendetta against him, so I let her. She never came back. I've been on my own ever since, which is why I'm delighted to hear the 2 cannons, signalling the final 4 tributes. There's 3 people left in my way of returning home, and judging by the watch I was sent, the recaps are about to play.

Sure enough, the Panem anthem booms around the arena, and I grin, kicking back against the sand. This should be good. I would be happy if the final four consists of Girl from three.. Boy from 10, Mason and myself. Which means I'm very frustrated when the first face appears.

_District 3._

Shit. Well, I wasn't expecting any less. I guess anyway. Eh. Well as long as the next one isn't Mason.

It's Mason. Fuck. Well this means the final four tributes are me, Odair, Traveth and the boy from 10. Traveth must be pretty fucking stupid if 10 is still alive, because she set out for him about 2 days ago and he _still_ isn't dead. I feel a deep shame to my district for letting them both live when I had the chance to obliterate them. I feel shame for falling to my knee's as Stuart was incapacitated, instead of slaughtering Odair where he stood. The Capitol want a show, and they're going to get a show. Oh yes they will get a show. I shall make up for my embarrassment by causing Finnick Odair a slow and painful death, to avenge not only my mate, but my district, and to defend my honour and dignity.

Finnick Odair shall pay, and I will guard this promise with my very life. You can certainly count on that.

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**Big thanks to Taralani2362, Pinklove21, peetniss 4 eva and Angel That Can't Fly for reviewing the last chapter :3 Next chapter will be up as soon as possible. This story may end up being a little shorter than I planned it to be because I originally aimed for 100,000 words but it's almost finished and it's only 47,000 :c mehh. Anyway, peace out!**

**-Bex**


	12. Chapter 12 - Some Time Alone

**I'd like to start off by saying that, I am really sorry for not updating at all! I've had to take a lengthy break from my fan fiction writing I'm afraid, due to personal issues. But fear not, as I've promised that over the christmas break I shall complete my fiction3 And maybe start the sequel. I've decided to start making my chapters a little shorter, to make sure you have constant updates! Enjoy :3**

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Chapter 12 – Some Time Alone

Finnick's POV

'Finnick..?' A voice whispers harshly into my ear. Whoever it belongs to, their mouth is so close to my ear that I can feel their hot tingling breath against my skin. I mumble lightly, before rolling in the different direction to the voice. I know this is the Hunger Games. I know I have to get up and fight but, right now I have no chance. Not with the emotional state I'm in.

All my life, I had fallen in love only once. I fell in love with a girl I had known all of my life. 2 years after I realised I loved her, I decided to tell her. Little did I know that she did not feel the same way at all.. In fact, she felt that way for another boy. She just waved me off, and told me it would be better off us just being friends. Telling her.. It put a huge dint in our relationship. We drifted away from each other. We started speaking maybe once a day, whereas before we'd spend all our time together.

Once a day turned to once a week, and once a week turned into once a month. Eventually, that once a month turned into not at all, and we didn't see each other for 4 months. I missed her terribly, but slowly I started to move on. Of course, there will always be a little place in my heart for her. I didn't see her, until that one morning, three weeks ago. We were both reaped for the Hunger Games. It was like all of a sudden, we forgot about everything that had happened over the last year, and became inseparable again.

I had myself convinced that I still loved Emilana Dawn. Everything felt like it did before. I went on thinking I loved her right until the moment she died. I held her hand, I talked to her, made her happy. I didn't have time to show emotion, but the girl I loved had just died. I didn't care that she was older than me because in district 4, age is but a number.

I had myself convinced that I still loved Emilana Dawn, until I met Ivory. We spent so much time together, and under such harsh conditions, we instantly became friends. The time we spent together made me forget that my life was in danger. And I always had a little feeling that there was something more than that, I just didn't quite realise this until that moment in the clearing. I was facing death, but all I could think about was Ivory laying there in that field. Had they killed her already? I had no idea. I realised that I didn't want her to die, and I knew I couldn't live with the guilt if she died and I lived.

I made my decision then, that I'd get her out, so I ran for it. I ran, I dived over her, and looking into her eyes, that's when I realised I loved her. Not the way I loved Emi, this was sudden, a sudden rush of happiness, joy. I didn't think twice. With my new motivation I pulled her up, and dragged her into the forest. We ran, ran and ran, off into the distance. I stumbled a few times, but I never let go of her. I just kept my arms around her the whole time. As we were running, her hand slipped from mine. My arm was still round her, but she started struggling, trying to run away. I wouldn't let her, so she started screaming my name, trying to get away.

For some reason, she thought I wasn't there. She thought she'd lost me. I knew she cared about me now, and seeing her like this just broke my heart. As I come to a clearing, I see it's a lake with a small island in the middle. I can only pray that they won't be able to swim. I pull Ivory down with me and dive into the water, then hear a shrill shriek of my name. It was then I noticed she'd ran back into the forest. Before I had chance to get up, a shape rushed by my, bounding into the forest. It was big, human and built like an ox.

'IVORY!' I screamed, but I felt myself being dragged backwards into the water. I had no idea what was going on. I felt sand as I was dragged onto the island, and I just lay there until Ivory was dropped beside me by none other than Stock, from district 10. I soon lost conscious. When I came to, I found out that Ivory was still unconscious. I learned that about two days prior, Eleanor and Stock had teamed up, and formed their own alliance. They had apparently planned this before the games, and I had no idea.

Eleanor and Stock were just setting up camp on the island, when they heard Ivory's scream for me. Eleanor recognised it instantly, and acted on a whim, coming to the rescue. And basically that was where we were, sat round a tree taking it all in. We spent about 2 days just.. Existing. The only threat to us was Lucieina, and if she was smart she wouldn't come alone. And she was very smart.

On the third night, we heard some splashing in the river. We all got up, baring our weapons, just in case it was Lucieina, or more mutts, and ran to the side of the island the splashing was. Strangely enough, we didn't find mutts, or even Lucieina. We found a very wet and very sorry looking 14 year old girl,struggling to breath in the water. Since we seemed to be saving everybody, I dived into the water, bringing her to safety. I later learned the girl was called Deena.

That same night, was the night Ivory came back to me. And I thought that I couldn't have had a better end to my life. That was until Deena killed her. It was like time its self stopped, and I just stopped existing. I just curled up, and slept, not even bothering to watch the death recap.

So here I am now, curled up in the same spot, with Eleanor leaning over me, repeatedly poking me in the stomach.

'FINNICK ODAIR GET THE FUCK UP NOW BEFORE I CAUSE YOU UNNECESSARY PAIN TO YOUR BALLS.' Okay, that is where I draw the line. I instantly spring to my feet, and turn to face her, gripping the shaft of my trident. She takes one look at me, and sniggers, before gesturing to one of the packs.

'Huh?' I ask, looking in the direction she's pointing.

'Take your pick. We should end this alliance. There's only four of us left.' She says, shrugging.

'Oh.' Is all I can say in response. 'Where's Stock.'

'He never came back. Took everything he had. It was like he never set foot on the island.' Oh, that explains a lot.

'And Deena?'

'Dead.' She replies nonchalantly.

'Who?'

'Me.' Ah I see, so Eleanor killed Deena. I guess I can kind of thank her for avenging Ivory.. Ivory. I need to stop thinking about her. I've been thinking about her from the moment she ran back into that forest, and I need to stop. If I'm going home, I need to just... Forget about Ivory Mason. Pretend that she never existed.

'I got a plan' I say, raising an eyebrow at her.

'Shoot.' She replies, rolling her eyes and grabbing a pack from the ground.

'We go our separate ways, hope Lucieina and Stock take each other out. When the next cannon sounds we head to the cornucopia and await our opponent, take them out and then we shall see who comes out on top.' I say, looking her straight in the eyes, keenly awaiting an answer.

'Deal. See you at the end.' She says, before turning round and walking straight into the water, not even blinking. Huh. I guess I have the island then. I really do not know what to make of this.. I didn't think that I'd make it to the final 8, never mind the final 4. But, I think this is where it ends for me.

I am against three incredibly powerful tributes. Two of them scored an 11 in training, and one a 10. My 9 is no match for them at all. This is the first time in my life that I feel powerless, and I do not like it. So I shall make a resolve. What do sponsors focus on the most? Looks. It's obvious that they find me attractive, just the way they looked at me proved that. So what do I do? I take my shirt off.

I get about.. 10 seconds, if that, to relax before a metal cylinder finds its place beside me. It makes me feel sick. I'm 14 years old and these Capitol people are already pawning over me. If I make it out of here, I have a feeling I won't get much rest. Speaking of rest, I certainly won't get any tonight. By night time I'll have ran out of water, and it will be freezing cold. All I have is Ivory's bloodstained coat, and a thin sleeping bag. I can't make a fire because I'll be found and quite easily killed. If I'm sure of anything though, it's the fact that I can't stay here for much longer. 2/3 remaining tributes know exactly where I am, and I'm sure that the other is smart enough to figure it out, if she hasn't already.

Everybody with more than 2 braincells, knows that Lucieina Equies is probably the biggest threat ever to grace the Hunger Games, with the exception of her esteemed mentor. I've heard stories of how the tributes volunteer in District 2, and after meeting Lucieina my suspicions are only confirmed. Before I went into the games, I asked Mags (My mentor), what she knew about the other districts. What she said about 2 shocked me. She said that every year, the Victors walk around and choose a 12 year old to mentor for 6 years. Each mentor only chooses once every 6 years, and the strongest of the trained tributes is sent into the games when they turn 18 years old. They only send 1 tribute that has been trained by a Victor, as there can only be 1 victor.

From what I've seen of Lucieina, it's clear that she was the trained tribute of the 2, as she is mentored by the one and only Demes Corvinus, the 40 year old victor of the 43rd Hunger Games. Everybody in Panem, alive or dead, has seen his games. They are probably the most popular, side-by-side with the games of the first girl he mentored, Enobaria Moreno. If this is any sort of pattern then we're fucked, because that girl.. Damn. She's fast, strong, she has incredible aim and from the 1 conversation I had with her, I could see that she's also satanic. Which is a big problem.

I killed her mate.

Starving. Famished, in fact. I don't think I've eaten in almost three days. I lay here, curled up on the branch of a tree. Only a trident to my name.

It has been three days since the game makers decided it would be an intelligent idea to completely obliterate the hot side of the arena. I knew at that moment, that I'd lost. I had limited clothing and hardly any food left. It has also been three days since my pack mysteriously disappeared, and I've been laying on this branch, shivering ever since. Of course, I have Ivory's coat, still thickly stained with her blood.

It smells of her.

I know that I'm not going home. Looking up to the sky, I realise that it has become night time yet again. What I would do to spend my last moments with my family, to see my 15th birthday, to see the beautiful sun of district 4 again. District 4.. I miss it so much. The sandy beaches, the warm, bright sun beating down upon my shoulders, the happiness and friendliness. All of it, so different to what I see before me now. Well, at least I know that, with the exception of Eleanor, most of the remaining tributes will be feeling the same as I.

They're all built for warmer climates, being from an even numbered district. They would have had the summer clothing on. So I guess I have a one up on both of them, I have Ivory's coat.

Gah, what's the point. Nothing at all has a purpose any more. If the game makers want to keep being ass holes, they're going to loose ratings. Nobody wants to spend weeks watching a bunch of tributes freeze to death, do they? Well I hope not. I can't even make a fucking fire because everybody would be alerted of my whereabouts. This sucks.

Oh well. A couple more days and I'll die of thirst anyway..

Plutarch Heavensbee's POV

There is a loud curse from the other side of the room, and the young women who I've had the _pleasure_ of spending every breathing second with, stands up.

'What is it now, Laportia?' sighs Seneca, raising an eyebrow at her.

'Don't talk to me in that tone of voice, _child._' She says, glaring into the young man's eyes. 'You've been here what.. 1 year? And you think you own the place. Respect your seniors and learn some manners.'

'Oh shut it you uptight b-' He starts to retort, but is interrupted by another man.

'Children, children. Quieten down. We are all equal in the house of Snow.' He purrs, his blood red lips curling into a smile.

'Yes sir.' Mutter the two youngest game makers in unison.

'Yes..what?' he booms, authority radiating from him.

'Yes, head game maker Harrison.' squeals Laportia, and Seneca soon follows suit.

'Now, Miss. Reinhald, tell me, what is the source of all this kerfuffle?' he says, his eyes laying gently upon her face. I know that look anywhere. That look is hungry. We all know that ever since Laportia Reinhald started as a game maker, she has been the subject of anybodies fancy in the Capitol, but in the year I've been working as a game maker, I can see that Staven Harrison has shown a particular liking to her.

I've also noticed, that in the three months since Harrison was promoted, he has been using his new found power to try and win Laportia's heart. In all honesty, I doubt it will be much longer before she does not have a choice in the matter. Poor Laportia, with her platinum blonde hair, and unnaturally blue eyes, she is bound to attract all the wrong men.

She runs her fingers through her soft curls, before walking over to her station.

'Our ratings are going down..' She says, sighing. I feel very sorry for her. 18 years old and she is forced into a job, with probably the more insufferable man in existence breathing down her neck at every opportunity. I shouldn't feel bad, it's normal, in the Capitol. But.. It's my fault that she's here. Originally from district 8, Her and her sister were swapped at birth, with my two daughters Bonnie and Twill. I gave Laportia and her sister.. Who's name escapes me.. To a couple unable to have children, hoping that I could just forget about it.

It was working well. All my plans. Just one more year and my daughter wouldn't be alone any more. She would be safe and in good hands, away from all the troubles of modern society. It wouldn't be long until I had all three of them back, and I could just get on with my life. It was all going well until I got my long awaited promotion, from the escort of district 1, to the Hunger Game's newest game maker. I was so happy. Until I realised that my mentor would be none other than the child that I gave away all those years ago.

'Heavensbee?' Huh? Who said my name.

'Sorry what?' I respond, blinking a few times. Harrison glares at me, and then at Laportia.

'What is your opinion?' He says.

'..On what?' I respond, looking him straight in the eye.

'For goodness sake Laportia did you teach him nothing!'

'I did! He was.. I did teach him he just doesn't listen! I can't.. I'm so-' She is cut off by a large hand striking across her face, and all she can do is stand there and let it happen. He just shrugs and turns to face me again.

'Heavensbee.. What do you think we should do about the fact our ratings are going down?' Finally, a chance to get the thoughts I've been wanting to express for the last three days heard.

'Well..If you haven't already noticed..' I start off, smiling at him. '..With the exception of district 1, all remaining tributes are complaining about it being too cold.'

'Continue.' He says, sitting back in his seat.

'So.. Why don't we heat things up a little bit?'

'How do you mean?'

'Well, if you look, you see all four tributes are situated in wooded areas.' I look around, to see that somebody has pulled up all four tributes on the main screen, proving my point. I see that most game makers are nodding in approval, with the exceptions of Laportia, who is standing in the background, nursing the scarlet hand print on her cheek, and Staven, who sits cold faced in the middle of the room.

'How do you plan to _heat things up_, Mr. Heavensbee?'

I look him dead in the eye, a small smile playing on my lips.

'Fire.'

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**Thank's for reading and reviewing, I appreciate it. **

** -Bex**


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